The Long Road Home I - Separations
by Kira 47
Summary: A Vaadwaur plot to capture Voyager sets into a motion a chain of events with far-reaching consequences.
1. The Flyer

DISCLAIMER: You all know the drill - Paramount is God.  All hail Paramount.  They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go.  All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish)

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  If I were one of TPTB, this might have been how I wrapped up the series.  This takes place about two weeks after the events of "Workforce", and is consistent with canon up to that episode.  It diverges after that, although I do make use of scenes and events from "Author, Author" and "Human Error" (don't worry, NO C/7!)

This started out as a single story, but it's now part of "The Long Road Home" trilogy, so look for the sequels: "Awakenings"  and "Paradise Lost"

Now, on with the story.  Enjoy!

SUMMARY: A Vaadawaur attack on the Delta Flyer leaves Chakotay presumed dead and Captain Janeway devastated.

THE LONG ROAD HOME

SEPARATIONS

CHAPTER ONE : THE FLYER

_First Officer's Log, Delta Flyer, Stardate 54645.3  We've completed our trading mission with the Vanari and are preparing to return to Voyager with our cargo hold full.  We're making a small detour to examine an asteroid cluster which may provide a useful source of polyferranide._

"I'm definitely reading what looks like polyferranide deposits," said Chakotay as he looked at his console. "But there's something in the asteroids that's interfering with sensors."

"I can bring us closer if you like," offered Tom at the helm.

"No thanks – I'd rather not have to try and dodge asteroids."

"Come on, Chakotay, I can handle it.  Where's your sense of adventure?"

They were interrupted as Neelix approached from the back of the Flyer. "Would anyone else care for some lunch? I programmed my roasted chadre-kab into the replicator, and I added a few extra spices to give it some more flavor."

"Sounds great, Neelix," said Chakotay.  He looked at Tom and raised an eyebrow.

Tom chuckled and turned around to his controls. "I take it back – you do have a sense of adventure."

Chakotay was about to reply when a beep at his console got his attention.  "I'm picking up some gravimetric distortions."

Tom frowned, checking his own console. "I'm reading them too…can you localize them?"

"I'll try…looks like about 20,000 kilometers off the port nacelle.  Wait – I'm getting something else."  His eyes widened as he examined the sensor readings.  "It looks like a ship!"

"Got it," said Tom, "But where the hell did it come from?"

 "It's a Vaadwaur ship!" exclaimed Neelix, looking at his own console at Tactical.

"Raise shields!  Try hailing them, Tom."

"Hailing on all subspace channels."  The console chirped.  "No response."

"They're powering weapons – evasive maneuvers!"

"I'm on it," muttered Tom as he deftly maneuvered the Delta Flyer in to a starboard roll just in time to avoid the first volley of phaser fire from the Vaadwaur ship.   His next moves weren't fast enough, though, and the following shot connected with the back of the Delta Flyer, shaking the front compartment.  

"Neelix?" 

"Shields are holding.  Some minor damage to the power relays, but we're still in one piece." 

"Return fire and target their weapons array." 

The phasers on the Flyer powered up and fired at the larger Vaadwaur vessel, but it continued to pound the smaller ship.  This time, the damage was more severe and an EPS conduit blew just behind Neelix.   

"No effect, Commander.  They're still firing." 

"Understood.  Tom, can we – " Chakotay was interrupted as another blast rocked the Delta Flyer, throwing him out of his seat.  

"Shields at 67 percent.  They took out the primary phaser couplings.  I'm switching to backup," reported Neelix. 

"Tom, get us out of here!" yelled Chakotay as he pulled himself back into his seat. 

 "I can't!" he yelled back. "That last shot knocked the reactant injectors offline.  They'll have to be realigned before we can go to warp.  One of you will have to go down there and do it – " The Delta Flyer shook as another Vaadwaur shot connected.  " – preferably _before we get vaporized here.  They're right on top of us…I can't outmaneuver them for much longer." _

"I'll go," said Chakotay.  "Keep targeting their weapons array and send a distress call to Voyager."  He ran towards the back of the Delta Flyer and started down the stairs. 

Tom reached for one of the buttons in from of him.  "Voyager, this is the Delta Flyer.  We are under attack by a Vaadwaur ship and have sustained damage.  We require immediate assistance repeat we require immediate assistance."

On board the attacking ship, one of the Vaadwaur was staring intently at a wire-frame image of the Delta Flyer.  He leaned forward to confirm his readings, then turned to his superior. 

"He's on the move, Commander.  He's in the lower deck near the front section." 

"Good work, Vaudrin.  Let me know if he leaves that location," replied the other alien. "Prepare the transporter and coordinate the final assault."  He walked to his chair in the center of the bridge and sat in it.  "The High Command insists that this proceed flawlessly, and I intend to see that it does."

In the front of the Delta Flyer, Tom was working furiously to avoid the onslaught from the Vaadwaur ship, while Neelix was trying to keep the shields up. 

_Secondary phaser couplings are offline, announced the computer. _

"I'm switching to photon torpedoes," he reported as the ship was jostled again. "Shields are down to 25 percent – one more hit and they're going to buckle!" 

"Chakotay, we need warp and we need it now!" Tom yelled at his commbadge.

In the lower level of the Flyer, Chakotay lay on his side in a Jeffries tube as he stared at the reactant injectors.  "I'm going as fast as I can," he muttered through his teeth.

The Delta Flyer rocked as another Vaadwaur shot hit the ship. "We're loosing shields!" yelled Neelix "I'll try and – " Neelix didn't finish the sentence as his console exploded, throwing him backwards.   

"Neelix? NEELIX!  Damn it!"  Tom turned around in an effort to check on him but wasn't able to tell if he was okay before he had to turn his attention back to piloting the ship.  "Chakotay!"   

_Almost got it.  __Give me another 20 seconds._

Tom was about to respond when the shields buckled and equipment began exploding around him.

"Their shields are down," announced one of the Vaadwaur. 

Commander Takken turned to the pilot of his ship.  "Take us under them.  Make sure we have a good shot at the ventral section.  We'll have to take it out quickly." 

"Yes, sir." 

The Vaadwaur ship moved quickly, circling around from behind the Delta Flyer until it was heading directly for it.  It then dove and leveled off so that it would pass beneath the Flyer. 

"Prepare to initiate the pulse and have the transporters and weapons standing by.  We'll only get one chance at this."

Tom was waiting for Chakotay's signal to go to warp when he noticed an energy buildup on one of his monitors.  "What the…"  There was a bright flash of light as the entire Delta Flyer glowed with a massive energy discharge.  The last thing he remembered before he lost consciousness was being thrown sideways as the Delta Flyer took a massive hit.   He did not hear the warnings that the computer chirped at him.  _Warning – hull breach detected.  Emergency forcefields are in place. Main power is offline.  Emergency power only.  The navigational array is offline.  The subspace communications array is offline…_

On the Vaadwaur ship, Vaudrin turned away from his station.  "Transport complete.  We were nearly perfectly synchronized.  We took him only .05 seconds before the impact.  It's unlikely their sensors would have detected it."

"Good," replied Commander Takken.  "The High Command will not be pleased if Voyager comes looking for him later."

*    *    *

On Voyager, Captain Janeway exited the turbolift and acknowledged Tuvok as he gave up her chair and moved to the Tactical station.  "Report," she barked.

"We received a distress call from the Delta Flyer…at least I think it's a distress call.  It's pretty garbled," replied Ensign Kim. 

"Let's hear it." 

The Captain heard what sounded like Tom Paris' voice, but she couldn't be sure with all the static. 

_V..__ger__, this……__lyer.  We are…__nder…__tack by………__aur__ ship and…………__damage. We require immediate……__peat………__immediate……__V...__ger__, this ……__lyer…_

Janeway frowned and moved towards Harry's station at Ops.  "It certainly sounds like they're in trouble.  We've got to clear that up.  Try narrowing the filter bandwidth." 

The transmission was more distinct this time.  "Again," ordered Janeway. 

_Voyager, this…__the Delta Flyer.  We are...__der__ attack by a Vaadwaur ship and have sus……__d damage.  We require immediate assist…..__repeat we require immediate assistance._

"Harry, have you got the coordinates?" 

"Yes ma'am.  They're less than a light year from here.  We could be there in a couple of hours." 

"Set a course, maximum warp."  She turned to Tuvok.  "We're a long way from the Vaadwaur planet that we encountered.  I guess it's safe to assume that they're using the subspace tunnels." 

"That would be a logical conclusion, Captain.  However, I do not know what motive they would have in attacking the away team." 

"Perhaps they are adapting,"  commented Seven of Nine. 

"Seven?" queried the Captain. 

"You yourself said that they were a resourceful species and that they would adapt.  Perhaps they are compensating for their outdated technology by taking newer technology from other, more advanced races."

"If their technology is out of date, it would be…_inefficient to try and take technology from tactically superior races," pointed out Tuvok.  Seven raised an eyebrow at his choice of words but made no response. _

"Perhaps," interjected Janeway, "But remember, Tuvok, that they may have the network of subspace tunnels at their disposal.  From what we've learned, very few species are even aware of their existence, much less able to use them." 

"The element of surprise would give them a considerable tactical advantage," conceded Tuvok.

They all considered this for a few moments in silence until Seven spoke up. 

"From what I have observed of Lieutenant Paris' piloting skills and the capabilities of the Delta Flyer, I do not believe that surprise alone would give the Vaadwaur a significant advantage." 

Janeway smiled at her comment.  "That's the kind of thinking I like to hear.  I'll be in my ready room.  Tuvok, you have the bridge." 

Only when she had achieved the safety and privacy of the ready room did she allow herself to draw in a shaky breath and worry about the fate of the Delta Flyer – and more specifically, the fate of her First Officer.

*    *    *

_Captain, we are approaching the coordinates of the Delta Flyer. _

Tuvok's voice through her commbadge startled Captain Janeway out of her train of thought. 

"Acknowledged," she replied as she took one last sip of coffee and got off her couch to go to the bridge. 

"Take us out of warp," she told the helm.  "Any sign of them, Harry?" 

Harry frowned as he looked at his console.  "I've got them on sensors, but I'm having trouble locking onto anything.  There's some kind of interference all over the hull and it's wreaking havoc with the sensors." 

"On screen," Janeway ordered.  The entire bridge crew fell silent as the image of the battered Delta Flyer filled the viewscreen.  The angle of the smaller ship concealed the massive damage it had sustained to the front, but what they could see was enough to make them all draw in a sharp breath.  There were dozens of scorch marks all over the wings.  The superstructure was visible in a few places where the blasts had vaporized the hull plating, and the very back of the Flyer showed signs of an explosion.  It was obvious why the sensors were having difficulty – there was what looked like small electric currents snaking around the Flyer occasionally, making the hull glow. 

"Lifesigns?" 

It was barely a whisper, but everyone on the bridge could hear the Captain's question. 

There was dead silence as everyone waited for Harry's analysis.  They could hear his fingers flying over the console in an attempt to get sensor readings. "I – I can't tell.  I've got two for sure … I think." Harry hit his console in frustration.  "I don't know, Captain." 

B'Elanna, becoming increasingly nervous at the lack of information given the ominous image on the viewscreen, jumped up from the engineering station.  "Can you get a transporter lock on them, Harry?"

Harry shook his head.  "Not until we do something about the interference." 

"Tractor the Flyer into the shuttle bay," ordered the Captain.  "We'll get them out from there." 

"Aye, Captain." 

"As soon as we've got them, take us out of here.  I don't want to be hanging around if the Vaadwaur decide to come back. Tuvok, keep us on tactical alert until further notice." Her voice dropped and she said quietly, "I'll be in the shuttle bay."  She nodded at B'Elanna to join her as she headed to the turbolift.  B'Elanna gave her a grateful look and followed her.  As soon as the doors were closed, B'Elanna leaned against the wall of the turbolift and closed her eyes. 

"Deck ten," Janeway ordered, then hit her commbadge.  "Janeway to Sickbay." 

_Sickbay here, Captain, replied the Doctor. _

"We're bringing the Delta Flyer in.  Meet us in Shuttle Bay Two." 

_On my way, came the reply. _

B'Elanna looked up sharply when the Captain called the Doctor.  The Captain could see the fear in her eyes and reached out to give her arm a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sure Tom will be just fine, B'Elanna."  B'Elanna closed her eyes again and nodded in response. 

They stood in silence for a moment before B'Elanna looked up and turned to the Captain with a hint of a smile on her lips.  "I'm sure Chakotay's all right too, Captain." 

Janeway looked up, startled – she had just been trying to convince herself of the same thing.  B'Elanna's smile widened at the Captain's astonishment. 

The Captain realized she was just standing there staring.  "I hope all three of them are safe," she replied uneasily.  She then quickly changed the subject. "Are there transport enhancers in the shuttle bay? They might help us cut through the interference on the hull if we need to."  B'Elanna nodded her acknowledgement. 

They exited the turbolift and walked quickly down the corridor towards the shuttle bay.  The doors opened to reveal the Delta Flyer being towed into position with the nose facing the shuttle bay doors. The extensive scorching and damage to the Flyer stopped them in their tracks for a moment, but it only took a few seconds for the two women to snap into action. 

"Let's get that rear door open!" barked Janeway as she strode towards the Flyer. 

B'Elanna turned around as she followed the Captain. "Somebody grab those pattern enhancers," she ordered, pointing to a far corner of the shuttle bay.  Behind her, the shuttle bay doors opened and the Doctor entered.  Seeing B'Elanna and the Captain, he hurried towards them. 

Janeway and another crewman opened the back door of the Flyer.  She entered, and the Doctor and B'Elanna followed close behind as she ducked under a hanging piece of conduit and made her way towards the front of the shuttle.  The interior was filled with hazy smoke but the air was breathable. 

Neelix was laying on the floor behind his tactical station.  The Captain kneeled next to him and felt his neck  for a pulse.  It was there, but she could see that he had some fairly bad burns on his face.  It looked like his console had exploded.  The Doctor was there immediately, running a medical tricorder over him. 

"He's got some minor internal injuries and a few second-degree burns to his upper body, but nothing that can't be easily treated," reported the Doctor. 

Janeway nodded and stood up, casting a nervous glance towards the empty seat at the other station – Chakotay's station.  _You don't have time to think like that, she warned herself.  Shaking off her uneasiness, she moved towards the front of the Flyer and down the ramp to Tom's chair.  He was still in it, but he was slumped over sideways. His pulse was strong and he didn't have any visible injuries.  B'Elanna made her way down the ramp and moved toward the other side of Tom's chair.  _

"Is he…" B'Elanna's voice broke and she couldn't bring herself to finish the question. 

"He's just unconscious," answered the Captain.  B'Elanna helped her sit him up in his chair and Janeway gently shook his shoulder.  "Tom?  Tom, can you hear me?" 

B'Elanna took one of his hands and gently touched his face.  "Come on, Tom," pleaded his wife.

Tom groaned softly and slowly moved his head before opening his eyes.  B'Elanna gasped and closed her eyes with relief. 

"It's all right, Tom, you're back on Voyager.  Are you hurt?" asked the Captain. 

"I…don't think so," he mumbled, "Although it does feel like a someone landed a shuttle on my head." 

"What happened, Lieutenant?" 

"A Vaadwaur ship came out of nowhere.  They were right on top of us – they took out the phasers and the shields and we couldn't get warp…" He paused as a thought occurred to him.  "What about Neelix and Chakotay?"   

"Mr. Neelix will be fine," responded the Doctor as he approached.  "They'll beam him to Sickbay as soon as the transport enhancers are in place." 

"Where's Chakotay? We haven't found him." Despite her best effort, the Captain was unable to keep the concern out of her voice. 

"He was…down below…in a Jeffries tube.  He was trying to realign the reactant injectors so we could go to warp.  He was almost finished when we were hit by some kind of energy pulse and took another phaser hit.  That's the last thing I remember." 

Captain Janeway moved aside to let the Doctor examine Tom and moved toward the back of the shuttle.  B'Elanna gave Tom's hand another squeeze and followed the Captain.  She made her way around the crewmen who were setting up transport enhancers around Neelix's unconscious form, and tried with some difficulty to keep from running to the back of the Flyer.  _Please let him be all right, she prayed. __Please don't let me lose him. The last thought took her by surprise but she ignored it as she went down the stairs.  She could hear B'Elanna behind her as she stepped off the stairs and walked to the Jeffries tube that led to the reactant injectors.  _

B'Elanna followed her as she crawled through it, but when they neared the front of the Flyer, they both stopped in their tracks, horrified.  

Instead of the Jeffries tube, they were greeted with a view of the shuttle bay through a huge gaping hole in the hull.  

The breach was massive, encompassing the entire width of the Flyer.  There were burn marks all along the edge of the hole, and pieces of conduit, wiring and superstructure were visible around the perimeter. 

The two women stood frozen in place. Captain Janeway couldn't believe what she was looking at.  _This is not possible.  This is not happening, she thought as she looked at the gaping hole in the belly of the Flyer.  She sat down and leaned on the bulkhead beside her to steady herself.  She was overwhelmed by the wave of emotions that suddenly descended on her.  Everything around her seemed to fall away.  There was nobody around her, there was no ship.  Only her.  Alone.  She was aware of nothing but her grief, her pain, her longing.  Her loss.  He was gone -- how could he be gone?  He couldn't leave her.  She couldn't go on without him.  She allowed herself to give into her emotions for a few seconds before the sound of the Doctor coming up behind her reminded her of her duties. __I can deal with this later, she thought. ___

When B'Elanna recovered from the initial shock, she quickly looked over at Captain Janeway.  She was completely motionless, and all the color had drained from her face.  B'Elanna could see the pain and  horror in her eyes, and for a moment she was surprised – it was very rare that the Captain let her guard down enough to let her emotions show on her face.  B'Elanna didn't even finish the thought before she heard the Doctor coming up behind them in the tube and saw the Captain straighten her shoulders and hide her apparent distress. 

"Does Commander Chakotay require medical atten…." The Doctor's voice trailed off as he looked at the hull breach and the faces of the Chief Engineer and the Captain.  "Was the Commander…"

The Captain's voice was shaky, but she managed to answer the Doctor nevertheless.  "He was working on the reactant injectors… they're…they _were…about two meters in front of the forcefield."  As she spoke, she entered commands on the console next to her and the emergency forcefield deactivated.  "Doctor, you're needed in Sickbay.  Tom is probably anxious to see you, B'Elanna." _

The other two looked at each other. 

"Are you sure, Captain?  I mean, I'm sure Tom will understand," B'Elanna said quietly. 

"I'll be fine, Lieutenant.  Go." 

Reluctantly, they turned around and left her alone. 

_How can he be gone? She leaned with her back against the wall and her knees pulled to her chest and put her head back until it was resting against the wall as well. __How can I do this alone?  She felt tears welling up behind her eyes, but she wouldn't allow herself to cry now.  Not in front of the crew. _

She took a few deep breaths before she moved toward the back of the Flyer.  She hit her commbadge.  "Janeway to the bridge." 

_Tuvok here, Captain._

"Status?" 

_We are moving away from the Delta Flyer's last position at Warp 6. _

"No sign of any Vaadwaur ships?" 

_None, Captain.  May I inquire as to the status of the away team?_

"Mr. Paris and Neelix were injured but not seriously…" She trailed off and waited for what she knew would come next. 

_And Commander Chakotay?_

She took a deep breath before she answered, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.  "The section of the Flyer that he was in was badly damaged…there was a hull breach.  There's no sign of him…we believe that he was killed in the attack."

Everyone on the bridge froze when they heard this announcement over the comm.  Nobody, most of all Tuvok, knew what to say. There were a few moments of silence before Tuvok finally responded.

"I am…sorry, Captain."

_Thank you, Tuvok.  I'm on my way to the bridge.  Janeway out. _

The bridge crew showed some surprise at this.  They all knew that the Captain would be deeply affected by the loss of her First Officer, and most had expected that she would retreat to her quarters to avoid the crew. 

*    *    *

In sickbay, Tom was sitting on a biobed as the Doctor ran a medical tricorder over him. 

"You seem to be in one piece, Mr. Paris.  Whatever that discharge was that you described, it didn't cause any permanent damage." He reached for a hypospray and applied it to Tom's neck. "However, if you experience any headaches or dizziness, let me know immediately.  Otherwise, you're cleared for duty."

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then Doc – 0800, isn't it?" Tom replied, trying to lighten the mood.  He knew for a fact that his Sickbay shift started at 0600, but he always liked to rile the Doctor by pretending to forget what time his shift started.  When the Doctor absentmindedly replied in the affirmative to his comment, Tom knew something was wrong.  He had noticed that B'Elanna looked upset, but he had assumed that she was just worried.  He began to wonder if there was something more.  He waited for a few seconds while the Doctor was working on a PADD, but then he couldn't stand it any longer. 

"Will somebody tell me what's going on?" 

B'Elanna and the Doctor looked up at him in surprise, then stole a glance at each other. 

"For crying out loud!" said Tom, jumping off the biobed.  "You two have been acting weird since you came in here.  What is it?  Have I got the Terrilium Plague or something?" 

"Apart from your vivid imagination, you're fine, Mr. Paris." 

Tom looked at him suspiciously, then looked at his wife.  "B'Elanna, come on.  Tell me what's wrong." He stepped forward and gently stroked her arm. 

The Doctor suddenly excused himself to go check on Neelix. 

"Tom…maybe you'd better sit down," she said, moving with him towards the biobed.  "I have some bad news."

*    *    *

Captain Janeway exited the turbolift and walked onto the bridge. "Status, Tuvok." 

"Still no sign of any Vaadwaur ships, Captain.  We have resumed our previous course." 

She acknowledged him and turned to Ensign Kim.  "Ensign, I want you to go over the Delta Flyer's sensor logs.  I want to know what happened out there." 

"Yes, ma'am," he responded as he moved to leave the bridge. 

Captain Janeway composed herself before she addressed Tuvok again.  "I don't suppose there's any reason to keep this from the crew.  See that they're notified, Tuvok.  I'll be in my ready room." 

With that, she retreated to the privacy of her room where she walked unsteadily across the room and collapsed on the couch. 

She could no longer hold off all the emotions and thoughts that rushed on her now.  Although she had managed to maintain her composure in front of the crew, all her self-restraint seemed to evaporate in the solitude of her ready room.  She no longer felt like a Captain who had lost a valued officer – she felt like a woman who had just lost her best friend, confidante, and…  Her emotions overwhelmed her and she was unable to bring herself to finish the thought. 

She had always known that she would be deeply affected if anything had ever happened to Chakotay, but she had never imagined feeling a grief this intense. One of the reasons that she had told herself that she could not become involved with her First Officer was because of this kind of situation. She had convinced herself that it was better this way in case anything ever happened to either of them. She had seen this first-hand, or at least hallucinated it, when she and Chakotay had crashed in the Sacajawea and she had seen him grieving over her body. If she kept him at arm's length, she had reasoned, then she would be able to go on if he was ever killed. 

_I guess my reasoning was flawed, she thought sadly. _

She realized now that having kept him at bay had done nothing to relieve her grief. She couldn't imagine feeling his loss any more than she already did. In fact, her inaction had made it infinitely worse. Now, she had to deal with many more issues. She had lost probably the most important person in her life, and this realization in itself was somewhat of a surprise.  She had told him once that she couldn't imagine a day without him, and she realized now, too late, how much she had meant that.  _The most important person in my life…__was that what he was to me? When it hit her that he was that and so much more, she was overcome by grief and remorse. The tears that she could feel welling up behind her eyes, however, refused to come out. Even now, she found herself unable to let out her grief - her sense of control was still too strong for her to let go and cry. _

Her grief was not lessened, however, by her inability to cry, and what made it all worse was one thing that she hadn't considered when she was trying to justify keeping him at bay – her regret. Not only was she grieving for the loss of her closest friend, she had to deal with the fact that he would never know how she felt about him. She regretted that she had never told him, she regretted that she hadn't known how deep her feelings were for him, and she regretted that she had pushed him away. The past six years all seemed so empty now, when she considered what she could have had. What she couldn't have now. The memories that sufaced in quick succession at this thought were not pleasant recollections from their years spent together, but rather instances where she had pushed him away.  So many opportunities ignored, so many chances not taken.  There seemed to be more than she could count.  There had been so many times that she had wanted to be closer to him, but her sense of duty had always won out and she had ended up rebuffing his gentle advances and pushing him away.  And now she was truly alone.

*    *    *

B'Elanna entered the shuttle bay and moved towards the Delta Flyer. "Harry?  You in there?"

"Over here," he answered as he came out the back of the Flyer.  "How's Tom?" 

"Sleeping.  The Doctor told him to get some rest." 

"You want to give me a hand with the sensor logs?" 

"Sure." 

They entered the Delta Flyer and began working on downloading the sensor logs from the damaged systems.  They were silent for a few minutes, only talking when necessary, until Harry broke the uncomfortable silence. 

"How's the Captain taking it?" 

B'Elanna's looked at him sharply.  "How do you think she's taking it?  She's upset, devastated – what did you expect?" 

Ashamed, Harry turned back to his work.  "Sorry I asked," he muttered. 

B'Elanna took a deep breath. "No, Harry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you.  It's just…"

"I know," said Harry, reaching over and putting his hand on her shoulder. "He was your friend.  He was mine too.  We're all upset.  I'm…I was just worried about the Captain, that's all." 

"Me too," B'Elanna sighed. "I mean, look at us.  We're talking about it, helping each other out.  Who's going to help her?  If it was anyone else, she'd turn to Chakotay, but now…what's she going to do, grieve with Tuvok?" 

Harry snorted. "Somehow I don't think that will do her much good." He paused. "What about Seven?" 

Now it was B'Elanna's turn to snort.  "Oh, right, the Borg approach to grieving. That'll do wonders.  'His death is irrelevant.  We will adapt.' Real great, Harry." 

"No, I'm serious.  Seven may not be the most sensitive person on board, but she and the Captain are pretty close.  If we talked to her first, she might actually be able to help." 

"I don't know…I can't see her opening up to Seven." 

After a moment, Ensign Kim had a new thought.  "What about you or Tom?  We used to call you her 'personal reclamation projects.'  She might talk to you guys…especially you, B'Elanna, since you were close to him." 

B'Elanna considered this for a moment.  "I'll give it some thought." 

"How did Tom take the news?" 

"Not well.  He and Chakotay had really hit it off since we got married and since I found out I was pregnant.  I could actually see them as good friends…" Her voice broke and she paused before she continued.  "Tom blames himself.  He thought that if he'd been faster or seen them coming or..." 

"It's not Tom's fault.  They were facing a huge warship.  I can't believe he and Neelix made it back okay and with the Delta Flyer mostly intact." 

"Try telling that to Tom.  He's always been a master at blaming himself.  He'll be kicking himself until the Captain straightens him out.  She's usually good at pulling him out of his own misery." 

"I'll try to talk to him, too – not that he ever listens to me." 

B'Elanna smiled.  "There's a first time for everything.  Listen, if you've got this under control, I for one am going to take your advice.  I'll go try and talk to Captain Janeway.  She'll want to see the initial sensor analysis anyway." 

"Good luck." 

"Thanks – I'll probably need it."

*    *    *

The chime on her ready room door startled Captain Janeway out of her thoughts. _Who could that be? she wondered.  She hoped she looked halfway decent, but just in case she wiped her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair.  The door chimed again.  "Come." _

She was surprised to see her Chief Engineer come through the door.  "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"

B'Elanna winced at the use of her title – that was not a good sign for the conversation she had in mind.  You could always tell what kind of mood the Captain was in by how she addressed her crew.  Her choosing to remain formal probably meant that she was all business right now, something that would make what B'Elanna intended a lot more difficult.  Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and addressed the Captain.  "I've got some of the initial sensor readings from the Flyer.  I thought you'd want to see them."

Janeway nodded and motioned for B'Elanna to sit down on the couch beside her.  She waited for her to begin. 

"From what I've got so far, it looks like the Vaadwaur came out of one of the subspace tunnels almost right on top of the Flyer.  They must have been waiting for them, because it sure doesn't look like just a coincidence.  They came out of there firing." Janeway frowned at this information, and B'Elanna continued, "Tom was able to keep them away from the worst of it for a while, but they started losing primary systems and then warp went offline.  They lost shields and then were hit with some kind of pulse which rendered them all unconscious.  A few seconds later, the computer records a hull breach." She paused and looked at the Captain.  She was concentrating on the PADD in her hands and trying to stay composed. "Uh...that's all we'll know until Harry finishes reconstructing the data." 

"Tell Seven to give him a hand," she said, handing the PADD back to B'Elanna. 

"Yes, Captain." The engineer rose to leave, and moved away from the couch and down the two stairs to the main part of the room. When she reached it, however, she stopped and turned to face Janeway again.  She was still sitting on the couch, with one elbow propped on the back of the couch and her chin resting in her hand, looking out the window. 

"Captain?" Startled, Captain Janeway turned around to look at B'Elanna. 

"Was there something else, Lieutenant?" 

Again with the title, but B'Elanna plunged forward anyway. "Just…I wanted to…I wanted to let you know that if you need to talk…" The Captain turned back towards the window in an attempt to keep herself from falling apart.  B'Elanna continued, "He…He was my friend too." 

Captain Janeway's composure visibly melted and she turned around in her seat to give B'Elanna a warm, affectionate smile.  "I know he was.  He was very proud of you, you know." 

B'Elanna's eyes filled with tears and she looked down at her feet.  "I know," she whispered.  She turned to leave, but the Captain's voice made her stop and turn around. 

"Thank you for the offer, Lieutenant.  I'll…keep it in mind." B'Elanna smiled and nodded, then turned and left the ready room, leaving the Captain to continue staring out the window.

*    *    *

At the end of her shift the next day, B'Elanna handed the warp core diagnostic she was running over to Lieutenant Carey and headed for the mess hall. She entered a turbolift and leaned against the back wall, feeling close to tears.  _What a miserable day, she thought. __And it's not even over yet.  The turbolift stopped and she was surprised when Captain Janeway entered.  The Captain was obviously surprised too. _

"B'Elanna!  I was just on my way to Engineering to look for you." 

"My shift is over so I was on my way to the mess hall…unless you'd rather go someplace quieter?" she added tentatively, hoping that the Captain had decided to take her up on her offer. 

"No, the mess hall's fine."  Her voice softened as she turned to her chief engineer. "How are you holding up?" 

"I'll live.  How about you?" 

"I've seen better days." They both smiled sadly at her casual understatement. The turbolift stopped and they headed for the mess hall.  B'Elanna got a bowl of soup, and they chose a quiet corner where they could talk in private.  B'Elanna slowly tasted her soup while she waited for the Captain to begin. 

"I've been thinking about…some of the things that have to be done around here…and I was hoping that I could count on you to make the arrangements for Chakotay's memorial service." 

B'Elanna froze with her spoon halfway to her mouth before slowly putting it down.  Before she could answer, the Captain continued. 

"I'd take care of it but I'm not familiar with the customs of his people, and I thought that you might be since you've known him for so long…"

"I'd be honored to, Captain." 

"Thank you." Giving B'Elanna's shoulder a maternal squeeze, she rose and turned to leave. 

"Captain." Janeway turned back around.  "I meant what I said earlier…my door's always open if you need to talk." 

"Thank you, B'Elanna." 

B'Elanna watched her go with a small smile on her face.  At least this time, she had called her by her name.  Definitely a promising sign. 

Neelix also watched the Captain leave, then made his way over to B'Elanna's table and sat down at her invitation. 

"How's the Captain holding up?" 

"Good enough that I have no idea how to answer that."  She paused and took another spoonful of soup.  "If she were a mess I'd be able to tell, but…she's pulled herself together just enough to hide it from the rest of us.  For a minute after…after we realized what had happened I thought I could see through her tough exterior and she was devastated.  But it was only there for a second before we were interrupted and she was the unflappable Captain again." 

"Sounds like her.  She's a strong person – I'm sure she'll be all right." He leaned forward.  "It's the rest of the crew that I'm worried about.  This is going to crush the morale on the ship." 

B'Elanna thought about that for a moment. "You're right about the rest of the crew, but the Captain…I don't know. Normally I'd agree with you, but normally she has Chakotay to help her through stuff like this.  I think she relied on him more than any of us realized.  If I thought that she'd rely on any of us like that, it would be different, but I don't think she does.  Maybe Tuvok, but he won't be much help."

"Well, at least she knows that we're here if she needs us."

*    *    *

Chakotay groaned as he started to come to.  He tried to lift his head off the cold floor pressing against his cheek and realized he had a splitting headache.  After laying still for a few more moments, he opened his eyes.  It took him a few seconds to realize that he was no longer on the Delta Flyer.  _What happened? he wondered. __I had just about got the reactant injectors aligned when…there was a bright flash of light. He remembered feeling a tingling sensation, then nothing.  The lighting was dim and his eyes were still unfocused, so he couldn't tell where he was. He pushed himself off the cold metal floor and reached for his commbadge but felt nothing except his uniform.  Feeling his way around, he came into contact with a wall and leaned against it.  He could feel a cut on his forehead.  After a few minutes of sitting like this, the lights came on suddenly, causing him to squint in pain.  When he opened his eyes, he could see that he was in a small cell in what looked like a ship.  Three Vaadwaur were standing at the entrance to his cell. _

"Commander…I see you're more responsive.  I am Commander Takken of the Vaadwaur Imperium." 

"What do you want from me?  Where's my crew?" he demanded

"Your two companions? I should think that they are back on Voyager by now.  You can join them – provided, of course, you cooperate." 

"What do you want?" 

Takken glared at him.  "You appear to be an intellectually challenged race – I should have thought that was obvious.  We want Voyager." 

"You'll get it soon enough – just not in the way you think.  If I know Captain Janeway, she's probably tracking you already." 

"Don't be so foolish as to expect a rescue attempt.  We destroyed part of your ship after we beamed you out.  Voyager will believe that you are dead.  You are our prisoner until you either cooperate or until we…_dispose of you."_

_*    *    *_

_Captain's Log, Stardate 54660.5 It's now been 5 days since the attack on the Delta Flyer, and life on Voyager is starting to return to some semblance of normal after Commander Chakotay's memorial service, although even I can see that the crew morale is suffering.  We are all feeling the loss of my First Officer. I've put Seven and Harry in charge of an investigation into the attack on the Delta Flyer to determine what happened._

In the conference room, the senior staff was gathered to hear the findings from the Delta Flyer's sensor logs. 

Seven was proceeding through the sequence of the attack.  "Mr. Neelix then switched to the backup phaser couplings. The same shot also disabled the warp drive when the reactant injectors were damaged.  The distress call was sent to Voyager and Commander Chakotay went below to attempt to realign the injectors.  The next Vaadwaur shot disabled the backup phaser couplings and took the shields down to 25 percent.  Mr. Neelix's console exploded and soon afterwards the shields buckled." She called up a display on the wall of the conference room.  "The Vaadwaur ship then emitted a neurolytic energy pulse that overloaded the consoles in the Flyer, rendered the crew unconscious, and caused the interference that we discovered upon our arrival.  The Vaadwaur ship fired again, causing the hull breach in the Jeffries tube and disabling most of the primary systems." 

"It's lucky a hull breach of that magnitude didn't destroy the Flyer completely," commented B'Elanna.

"I noticed that as well," responded Seven.  "However, before his console exploded, Mr. Neelix must have known that the failure of the shields was imminent, because he managed to reroute all available power to structural integrity." She gave Neelix a look of approval and added, "A move which no doubt saved the Delta Flyer." 

"Is there any doubt that Commander Chakotay was on the lower deck when it breached?" asked the Doctor.

Seven entered commands on the screen while she answered the Doctor.  "Unfortunately, no.  Sensors show him in that location immediately prior to the breach." 

"The ironic thing," said Harry, "Is that he did it.  Sensors show that the reactant injectors were realigned about two seconds before the last shot breached the hull." 

They all considered this in silence for a moment before Tom slammed his fist into the table. "If I'd been paying attention to the displays I would have known that!  I could have gone to warp and none of this would have happened!" 

"Tom…" began his wife, who was sitting beside him, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"Whether you noticed or not was irrelevant," pointed out Seven. "The injectors were not functioning until after the neurolytic pulse had been fired.  If you had engaged the warp drive, you could not have remained conscious to pilot the Flyer you would most likely all have been killed." 

This was little comfort to Tom, and he sat back in his chair with his arms crossed. 

"What happened to the Vaadwaur ship?" Tuvok asked. 

Harry pulled up another display on the screen.  "We can't be sure because the sensors were badly damaged after the attack, but we have what looks like another set of gravimetric distortions about a minute after the last shot.  Looks like they went back into the tunnels." 

Tuvok had something else on his mind.  "Did you find any reason for their attack?" 

"No," replied Harry. "Maybe they're still mad that we helped out the Turei back when we woke them up. A simple case of revenge." 

"They question isn't why they _attacked, it's why they __left." _

Until this point, the Captain had been unusually quiet, so all heads turned towards her when she finally spoke.  They looked back and forth at each other, confused by her question. 

"Captain?" said Harry. 

She leaned forward on her elbows and looked around the table.  "They had the Delta Flyer dead in the water.  Why turn tail and leave?"  The crew looked at each other, still puzzled. 

"If Seven is right and they were after technology," she continued, "Why leave without taking any?  We know they have transporters, and the Flyer's shields were down, so they could have made off with a cargo bay full of technology – but they didn't.  If Harry's right and they were out for revenge, why leave without destroying the Flyer?  One more shot and it probably would have been debris – but as soon as the Flyer was vulnerable, they ran off.  Why?" She leaned back in her seat.  "Something about this seems off."

The only response came from Tuvok on her right. "Perhaps they detected the distress signal and retreated to avoid a confrontation with Voyager." 

"Perhaps," she replied.  Seeing that there were no more forthcoming suggestions, she ended the meeting.

Tuvok stayed behind, but before she talked to him, she motioned for Seven to stay as well.  She picked up a PADD with Seven's report on it and addressed her. "I'm curious, Seven.  What you said about the extra power that was rerouted to structural integrity – you don't think the Flyer would have remained intact without it? It seems to me that it was built to withstand that kind of damage." 

Seven considered before responding. "It is possible…but Mr. Neelix does not need to know that."

Janeway melted, and gave Seven a smile. "Understood.  Good work, Seven." 

She waited until Seven had left, then turned to Tuvok.  "Well, spit it out." 

"Captain?" 

"You've got that look on your face like we're going to have a discussion neither of us is going to enjoy."

Tuvok's eyebrow went up.  "A look, Captain?" 

She sighed and continued staring at him. 

"I was merely curious, Captain, as to why you are concerned about the Vaadwaur's hasty departure.  They are unpredictable, yet you seem to believe that their unexplained retreat shows some kind of deceit."

"It's just a hunch – I have a bad feeling about all this." She stopped and turned to him with a sigh.   "You think I'm reaching, don't you?"  It was more of a statement than a question, but he answered nevertheless.****

"I believe that you are trying to discredit our findings in an attempt to shed doubt on Commander Chakotay's presumed death." 

"You think I'm in denial?" she said incredulously. 

"I am uncertain." 

She tried to calm down and squeezed the bridge of her nose in an attempt to ward off the pulsing headache that she could feel coming on. 

"I'm not in denial, Tuvok.  I'm just…trying to understand what happened.  It's in my nature to question all the facts." She looked up at him and put her hand on his arm.  "But thank you for your concern." 

He nodded and left the conference room. 

She sat down in her chair at the conference table and looked around at all the other empty chairs.

_You are not alone, he had said to her more than once. _

_It sure as hell feels that way, she thought._


	2. The Captain

DISCLAIMER:   You all know the drill - Paramount is God.  All hail Paramount.  They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go.  All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish).

SUMMARY:  While the Vaadwaur interrogate Chakotay, the Captain must continue to deal with life without her First Officer.

THE LONG ROAD HOME

SEPARATIONS

CHAPTER TWO : THE CAPTAIN

Late that night when most of the crew was asleep, B'Elanna made her way into the mess hall and began rooting around in the kitchen for something to eat.  She had mentioned to Neelix that she was plagued by late-night cravings, so the Talaxian had given her free reign of the kitchen so that she could conserve her replicator rations.  "After all," he had said with a grin, "You _are eating for two now." She found a bowl of what Neelix had claimed was a fruit salad that was left over from lunch and piled some on a plate.  Moving towards the main eating area, she was surprised to discover that she was not alone – Captain Janeway was sitting on one of the couches near the window.  Her back was against the arm of the couch, and her legs were stretched out along its length.  She was drinking coffee and had a PADD on her lap, but she was ignoring it as she stared out the window._

 "A little late to be reading reports isn't it, Captain?"

The Captain turned around, surprised.  She had been engrossed in her own thoughts and had not noticed anyone enter the mess hall. "B'Elanna! What time is it?"

"0300."

"A little late to be up and around yourself," she said,  pulling her legs underneath her to make room on the couch for B'Elanna.

B'Elanna smiled as she sat down and showed the plate.  "Midnight snack.  I've been getting cravings at the weirdest times, so Neelix told me to help myself to the leftovers."

She took a bite and made a face at the sour taste of the fruit.

"On second thought, though, I'll pass this time." She put the plate aside.

B'Elanna mentioned the memorial service, and they talked about it for a few minutes before there was a lull in the conversation.  Noticing again the PADD in the Captain's lap, she pointed to it.

"Catching up on personnel reports?"

"No, just thinking," she replied softly. "I was reading Chakotay's message that he left for me."

"Let me guess," said B'Elanna with a smile. "He told you to sleep more, eat more, and lay off the coffee.  I can see that you're following it to the letter."

"I'm sure he left something of that sort for the Doctor," she replied with a small smile. "But…not in mine," she added softly.  She ran her fingers over the screen, gently tracing the words.  B'Elanna regretted her insensitive comment and was about to apologize when Captain Janeway continued.

"Would you like to see it?"

She looked at the Captain with her mouth open for a few seconds before she was able to overcome her surprise and stammer out a response. "Captain, I couldn't…I didn't mean to pry.  That's not something…I mean, that's really personal."

"No, it's not…Well, it is personal, but I've scrolled down past the part where…" She paused and tried to think - what had he really told her in his message? On the surface, it had been nothing more than a farewell message from a close friend, but between the lines...there had been so much more. When she had first read it, she had been immediately struck by the emotional undercurrent of his words. She knew that he had told her he loved her, but looking at the message she could never pinpoint how or where he said it. Nevertheless, she wasn't going to share the first part of the message with anybody.  The end of the message though, didn't have the same kind of hidden meaning, and she had no objection to B'Elanna reading it.

"There's nothing here that I wouldn't be willing to share.  As a matter of fact, I'd be happy for you to read it since you two were so close."

B'Elanna took the PADD reluctantly and began to read the last part of the message that was on the PADD.

"… _I want you to know that serving under you these past few years has been the most rewarding experience of my life._

_My only other regret is that I won't be with you for the rest of your journey and to be there when you get this crew home – and I know you will get them home, Kathryn.  You're too stubborn not to._

_Remember that you are not alone – your Angry Warrior will always be with you._

_Chakotay."_

"That's beautiful, Captain.  But what does he mean about an 'Angry Warrior'?"

"He means himself," she replied with a smile at the memory.

"I don't understand…Chakotay was a very peaceful man.  I don't picture him as angry at all."

"It has to do with a story he told me when we were on New Ear…when we were quarantined on that planet a few years ago." She considered sharing the memory with B'Elanna, but changed her mind when she looked over the half-klingon's shoulder and saw a groggy Tom Paris stumble into the mess hall.

"Remind me to tell it to you sometime." 

B'Elanna was disappointed – she had thought for a minute that the Captain had been going to open up to her, but then something had changed her mind.  Neither she nor Chakotay had ever talked about their time on that planet, so it was unusual that she had even mentioned it.  But she had not only mentioned it, she had seemed willing to talk about it. That was a good sign, but she had still clammed up.

Her disappointment soon evaporated, though, because she understood why when the Captain leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "Don't look now, but I think your husband's about to come and drag you back to your quarters." 

Despite her warning to the contrary, B'Elanna looked back over her shoulder and saw Tom walking towards them with an annoyed look on his face.

"There you are," he said. "I woke up and couldn't find you. What are you doing up at this hour? You need your rest – your shift starts in four hours." Turning to the Captain, he added, "With all due respect, Captain, you're a terrible influence."

The Captain threw up her hands in mock surrender.  "Then I'll try to set a better example.  I have a shift in the morning, too, so I really should get back to my quarters." 

B'Elanna glared at Tom in frustration as the Captain got up to leave.  He was usually very perceptive, but he was being incredibly dense right now.  Couldn't he see that he was interrupting?  Must be the time of night.  She might actually be getting the Captain to open up by now if he hadn't barged in.

"Good night," muttered Tom, still groggy.

"Good night, Captain," added B'Elanna.

Captain Janeway started for the door, but she turned around and spoke to B'Elanna again.

"B'Elanna…Why don't you drop by my quarters sometime when you're off duty and we could finish our conversation.  And that's just a invitation – not an order, Lieutenant."

"I'd like that, Captain."  B'Elanna smiled at the Captain as she left the mess hall.  Maybe there was a chance of getting through to her, after all.

*    *    *

Chakotay groaned as he regained consciousness, laying on his back on the floor of his cell.  It took him a moment before the fog in his brain cleared and he remembered why he was not in his quarters on Voyager.

The Delta Flyer.

The Vaadwaur.

He tried to sit up and felt a sharp pain in his side.  Laying back on the floor with a gasp, he tried to recall what had happened.  It felt like he had a couple of cracked ribs – how had that happened?  Then he remembered the blows to the side and the fist that had come flying at his head, during the latest in a series of brutal interrogations.  They had 'interrogated' him a number of times already, but only in the last few sessions had they even told him what they wanted – Voyager's command codes.  He had tried to tell them that they were useless, that Janeway would have changed them in the event of a command change, but they hadn't wanted to listen.  They had only a limited understanding of how Voyager's computer worked, so they were too ignorant to know that he was telling the truth and they were too stubborn to admit they were ignorant.  They were smart enough, though, to ask him why he refused to give them the command codes if they were useless.  Chakotay had merely been silent at that question.  He couldn't tell them the codes because there was always the remote possibility that Captain Janeway wouldn't completely erase the old ones, and they could still be used to harm the ship.  He would not take that chance, however slim, and refused to give his codes to the Vaadwaur.

Sliding along on his back, he made it to the edge of the cell and pushed himself into a sitting position against the wall.  He clenched his jaw and tried to ignore the stabbing pain from his injured ribs.  He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, or even how long he had been here.  It could have been days or weeks since the attack on the Delta Flyer.  He reached up to his face and felt the swollen lump on his forehead.  He could tell by the dried blood on his face that he had been out for at least a few hours, but there was no way to tell.  They purposely fed him on an erratic schedule, and interrogated him at seemingly random intervals.

The lights in the corridor came on suddenly, causing him to shut his eyes in pain.  When he opened them, there were three Vaadwaur standing at the entrance to his cell.  The one in charge, Takken, spoke first.

"I'm afraid our last session was unfortunately cut short.  Shall we pick up where we left off, or are you going to cooperate this time?"

"I already told you, Takken, those codes are useless."

"I don't believe you.  If they were useless there would be no reason for you to keep them from us." 

Takken motioned for the two guards who flanked him to grab Chakotay, and they dragged him into a standing position by his arms.

"You have two choices, Commander.  You can give me Voyager's command codes and join your crew on a hospitable planet somewhere equipped with supplies…" He stopped pacing and moved closer to Chakotay until their faces were a foot apart. "Or we can take Voyager by force, which would result in…_unfortunate consequences for your crew.  It's your choice.  I would hate to see your crew suffer the repercussions of a bad decision on your part." _

Chakotay looked back at him defiantly.  "I don't believe _you.  If you could take Voyager by force, you'd have done it already." He saw an expression of uneasiness and surprise flash across Takken's face, so he knew that he was close to the truth.  "Captain Janeway's got you outgunned and you know it.  You're no match for Voyager, so you have to try and get it by deceit and coercion." Takken was becoming agitated now, as were the guards holding him, so he went in for the kill.  "I thought the Vaadwaur were a race of warriors.  I guess I was misinformed."_

Takken stepped back and appraised his prisoner.  He managed to regain his composure before he responded.

"The Vaadwaur _are a race of warriors.  However, our…circumstances have forced us to adjust our tactics for the time being.  Once we have Voyager and its technology, we will be able to take back what was once ours and the Vaadwaur Imperium will be reborn.  You're making this unnecessarily difficult, Commander.  We __will get Voyager, and when we do, you will regret that you did not cooperate sooner."_

Chakotay gritted his teeth to ignore the pain in his side long enough to speak again.

"You're the one who's going to be sorry, Takken.  When Captain Janeway catches up with you, she'll make you wish that you were back in stasis for another 900 years." 

Takken frowned. "I doubt we will have to deal with your Captain.  If our plan had failed Voyager would have come looking for you long ago.  You've been here for weeks already – Voyager's probably a hundred light-years away by now." With that, he motioned for the guards to bring Chakotay out of the cell.

Chakotay had no way of knowing as he was dragged away that Takken was lying through his teeth – it had only been ten days since the attack on the Delta Flyer.

*    *    *

After seven hours of trying to improve the efficiency of the warp core, B'Elanna finally decided to call it quits.  She was finding it increasingly difficult to refrain from attacking her subordinates, and they were getting jumpy just from being around her.  She could tell that they were all still upset about Chakotay's death, which didn't help their problem-solving efforts.  Leaving Vorik in charge, she left engineering and entered the turbolift.

"Deck four," she ordered.  The warp core efficiency hadn't been this low in years.  It was funny how the ship often reflected the crew – morale hadn't been this low in years, either.  She hadn't seen it this bad since they had left Chakotay and Captain Janeway behind when they were infected with that virus.  That train of thought reminded her of her conversation with the Captain in the mess hall a few days ago.  She had been prepared to take the Captain up on her offer to drop by at the first opportunity, but every time that she had been off duty the past few days, it was either late at night or the Captain was on the bridge. 

"Computer, halt turbolift," she ordered.  "Locate Captain Janeway."

_Captain Janeway is in her quarters._

"No time like the present," she muttered.  She wondered momentarily whether to change out of her uniform, but then realized that it was getting late, so she decided not to waste time by going to her quarters.

"Deck three," she ordered.

She walked down the corridor towards the Captain's quarters, and stopped at the door for a minute before tentatively pressing the door chime.  The doors whooshed open, and she stepped in.  The Captain was sitting in a large comfortable chair with her uniform jacket and her boots off and her feet up on an ottoman.  She had a blanket around her legs and a large hardcover book in her lap.  She sat up in her chair when her chief engineer entered.

"B'Elanna!  What can I do for you?"

"Actually, I was on my way back to my quarters when I remembered what you said in the mess hall the other night, so I thought that I would just stop by and talk, if it's not a bad time."

"Not at all.  Come in, sit down." She pulled the blanket off her legs, put her book on the footstool, and motioned to the adjacent couch.  "Can I get you something to drink? Tea, perhaps?"

"Tea would be great," she said as she sat down on the couch.  The Captain walked over to the replicator and ordered two cups of tea.  As she made her way toward the couch with the mugs, B'Elanna picked up the book laying on the ottoman.

"_The Odyssey? A little heavy to relax with, isn't it?"_

She smiled as she handed B'Elanna the tea and sat down beside her on the couch.  "I wasn't in the mood for something 'light' and this caught my eye on the shelf."  She sipped her tea and looked wistfully at the book. "As a matter of fact, it was a birthday present…from Chakotay.  He wrote on the inside," she said as she reached over and opened to the first page.

B'Elanna read Chakotay's flowing handwriting aloud with interest. "'Kathryn – May our journey be infinitely safer and shorter, but may the end of the road be the same.  Chakotay.'" She looked at the Captain with a puzzled look on her face.  "I don't remember the story exactly, but doesn't the main character wander abandoned and alone for over twenty years? Hardly an inspiring story for him to point out to you." 

"Maybe not from that perspective," she conceded. "But the point is that he survived years of hardships and finally made it home to his loved ones."

B'Elanna put the book down and turned to face the Captain.  "That reminds me…you said that you were going to tell me about the story Chakotay told you once…the Angry Warrior story.  Unless you'd rather not talk about it," she added hastily. 

"No, I don't mind." 

"Good, because I love hearing his legends." 

The Captain took a sip of her tea and settled back into the couch before beginning.  "I'm not sure if I can remember it all, but here goes…It's a story about an angry warrior, a man who lived in conflict with his tribe. He couldn't find peace even with the help of his spirit guide, and struggled with his discontent for many years.  The only satisfaction he got came when he was in battle.  This made him a hero among his tribe, but he still longed for inner peace.  One day he and his war party were captured by another tribe, led by a woman warrior.  She called on him to join her, because her tribe could not defend itself from all its enemies alone.  The woman warrior was brave and beautiful, and very wise.  The angry warrior swore to himself that he would stay by her side, doing whatever he could to make her burden lighter.  From that day on, her needs would come first.  And in that way, the warrior began to know the true meaning of peace."  She stopped and took a sip of her tea to conceal the tears that threatened to escape and tried to compose herself. 

B'Elanna remained silent for a moment.  She could see that the Captain was on the verge of tears, so she let her pull herself together before she said anything.  When it appeared that she was more composed, B'Elanna addressed her. 

"That's a beautiful story," she said finally. "I never heard that one – I shouldn't be surprised, though.  He always had one up his sleeve for every occasion.  He used to use them to get me to calm down when I was ready to lose my temper.  I'm surprised he didn't use that one on me when I came on board Voyager."  She could tell that there was something more to the story, but she let it pass for now since the Captain was so obviously upset. 

"You'll have to tell me some of them sometime.  I'd enjoy hearing them…although some of them I may know already.  Chakotay often told me legends when we were on that planet." She had finished her tea, and got up to get another cup.

_That's the closest I've ever come to telling anyone, she thought.  It had felt good, though, to share the story that meant so much to her.  She realized that it would have felt even better if B'Elanna could appreciate the meaning as well, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to open up that far.  If she told anyone on board, it would probably be B'Elanna, she mused.  She had been very close to Chakotay, and probably knew or suspected what his feelings for her had been._

She punched the command into the replicator.  "Would you like more tea, B'Elanna?"

"No thank you, Captain."

She walked back towards the couch with her tea in hand. "You know, B'Elanna, I've been thinking…if we're going to make these little chats a habit, maybe you should call me Kathryn."

B'Elanna looked at the Captain in surprise for a few seconds before she smiled. "You'll have to give me a few days on that one, Captain."

The Captain reacted immediately.  The color drained from her face and she froze with her mug halfway to her mouth.  Her eyes became moist as they filled with tears that she struggled to keep back.  Alarmed, B'Elanna leaned over and put her hand on the Captain's arm.

"I'm sorry – did I say something wrong?  I didn't mean to upset you." B'Elanna took the tea mug from her Captain's shaking hand as she tried to figure out what had distressed her.

Captain Janeway tried to reassure her companion. "It's not your fault, B'Elanna, it's just…" She paused, then decided to tell her why she was so agitated.  In a shaky voice, she explained her distress: "It's just that those are the exact words Chakotay used the first time I asked him to call me Kathryn." 

B'Elanna melted at this information. "I had no idea," she said quietly.  She could count on one hand the number of times that she had heard Chakotay use the Captain's first name – at least in the presence of others.  There had often been speculation among the crew, mainly Tom, herself, and Harry, on whether or not he called her Kathryn in private.  The consensus was that he did, and it had obviously been correct.

She wondered whether to leave, but instead decided to press on.  It would probably be good for the Captain to talk about it.

"When was that?" she asked.

"The first day that we were stranded on the planet."

"Oh?" B'Elanna smiled – she could imagine that Chakotay had been just as surprised and pleased as she had been a few seconds ago.  "How long did it take him to get up the nerve to do it?"

She chuckled.  "About a week.  He finally did it when I thanked him for building me a bathtub."

"He made you a _bathtub?" B'Elanna said incredulously._

"I mentioned that I thought we were roughing it since we didn't have a bathtub, so he went out and built one.  It was wonderful, actually.  Once," she laughed, "I was taking a bath when I heard a sound in the woods and called to him.  He came out, but it was only a monkey.  So we were just standing there and all I was wearing was a towel."

B'Elanna laughed as well. "That must have been…awkward."

"A little…but that's something I got used to a lot.  We got along well, but every now and then there would be a really awkward moment.  I guess it was unavoidable." She took a sip of her tea and made herself more comfortable on the couch.  "That legend came out of an awkward moment…we had been there about six weeks when a plasma storm hit and destroyed most of our equipment.  I had a sore neck from moving all the debris off the shelter, and Chakotay offered to give me a massage.  We didn't last half a minute before the…intimacy…of the situation hit us.  Being the coward that I was, I ran off to bed.  It was starting to occur to me that we were going to be there a _long time, and I didn't want to think about the…personal implications of that.  A while later, I came back out and wanted to 'define parameters.'" She smiled at the memory.  "Instead, he told me that legend."_

"It wasn't really a legend, was it," said B'Elanna. "That sounded a lot like the two of you."

"No, it wasn't, and I called him on it.  He said that calling it a legend made it easier to tell me…how he felt." She surprised herself with the last statement.  She had finally admitted to someone that Chakotay had had feelings for her. The release was so great that she finally lost control and started crying in front of her chief engineer.  B'Elanna overcame her surprise momentarily and comforted the Captain. 

The tears she had managed to hold back for so long poured down her cheeks.  "I was such a coward," she whispered. "I kept pushing him away, used protocol to keep a wall between us…and now it's too late.  I can never tell him how much he meant to me."

"He knew," replied B'Elanna softly. "He knew."

She put her arms around the Captain, and they comforted each other in silence before the Captain spoke in a whisper.

"What I wouldn't give to tell him."

*    *    *

_Captain's personal log, Stardate 54728.7  It seems like longer, but it's only been a month since I lost my friend and first officer.  The crew has been very supportive, B'Elanna in particular.  She stops by my quarters frequently now, and I've been to hers a few times.  I've come to look forward to our chats, but I still feel alone and isolated.  It's times like this I wish that we had a counselor on board – but that was another burden that Chakotay took upon himself._

Alone in her ready room, Captain Janeway stared out at the stars streaking by. She felt detached somehow, like she was adrift on the open sea. No, she thought, that wasn't an accurate analogy. She felt like she was lost in a crowd of people, but nobody could see or hear her, no matter what she did or how loud she screamed.  Sometimes it felt like there were too many people around her, but she still felt inexplicably isolated, even abandoned. It was like something heavy pressing down on her, and she couldn't get out from under it. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat, and she didn't feel like herself at all. When she was on duty, she managed to push this feeling to the back of her mind (as long as she pretended not to notice that it was Tuvok and not Chakotay in the chair beside her on the bridge), but the worst part of her day was when she returned to her quarters. She had never realized how much she looked forward to Chakotay's unannounced visits until they weren't possible anymore. For almost a year now, he had been in the habit of dropping by her quarters more frequently late at night when they were both off duty. They talked about the crew, their lives, their homes, ship's business (when he would let her bring it up), or anything that was on their minds. Well, almost anything. She had always carefully avoided any discussion of their feelings for each other, but she had often had the impression that it was on his mind. He had respected her wishes, though, and had never brought it up.

_"Are you sorry I showed up?"_

_"Not for a second."_

She closed her eyes.  She didn't know what had made her think of that conversation on the bridge a few weeks ago after the crew's rescue from Quarra.  It was moments like this that she regretted…she had felt at the time that she could have said so much more…about the days before her memory returned – getting to know him all over again without having to deal with Starfleet, the Maquis, being stuck in the Delta Quadrant…but as usual, she had let it pass.

The chime to her ready room sounded and the doors opened to admit Tuvok.  He walked over to the couch where she was seated and handed her a report.  B'Elanna had finally fixed the problem with the warp core, but it had left their energy stores at dangerously low levels.  Seven had located a planet with a deposit of dilithium, and they had set a course for it. 

"We should reach the planet within twelve hours, Captain."  She nodded as she skimmed the report he had given her – it was Seven's analysis of the planet. 

"Dilithium, gallicite…I was hoping we would find a planet with more that we need, but I guess we'll have to make due with what we can find."

"Lieutenant Torres estimates from the sensor readings that it will take approximately six hours to mine the necessary components."

"Then I guess we've got our work cut out for us."

Tuvok's eyebrow went up.  "'Us', Captain?"

"I'll be leading the away team."

Tuvok's surprise turned into a disapproving frown. "Captain, I do not believe that is wise.  You should not be joining unsecured away missions, especially since we have already lost one of our commanding officers."

"I don't care, Tuvok.  It's just a mining expedition in an uninhabited system.  I haven't been off the ship since…" She was about to say 'since Chakotay died' but thought better of it. "Since we were on Quarra, and I hardly think that counts as shore leave.  I really need to get some fresh air."

"Very well, Captain," he said, resigned.  When the Captain was like this, she was impervious to logic, so he decided to let her go planetside.  She probably could use a change of scenery.

*    *    *

Later that day, Captain Janeway leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and pinched the bridge of her nose.  It took a minute for the tears welling up behind her eyes to subside, but in the end they did.  She stood up and walked over to the windows.  This had been the worst day yet without her First Officer, but she was at a loss to explain why.  Her shift had been uneventful, and everything was status quo, but something had made her notice Chakotay's absence more than usual.  Sitting next to his empty chair on the bridge, eating lunch alone, sitting in her ready room for a good half hour after her shift was over without him coming in to tell her to call it a day – all day she had felt empty and alone, more even than usual.  Maybe it was because it was exactly four weeks ago today since the attack on the Delta Flyer, or maybe it was because she had finally stopped expecting him to walk into her ready room or join her for a meal at any time.  Whatever it was, she hadn't felt this miserable and isolated since the day he died.  She blinked back another onslaught of tears and composed herself.

Leaving the ready room, she entered the bridge and addressed Tuvok.

"You have the bridge, Tuvok.  Notify me when we're in orbit of the planet." She crossed the bridge to the turbolift hastily, trying to keep her barely concealed distress from the crew.  As soon as the turbolift doors closed, she gave it the order for deck three and then leaned against the wall, silently praying that she wouldn't run into anyone before she reached the privacy of her quarters.  With some difficulty, she managed to appear composed as she traversed the corridor to her door, and quickly entered before she saw anyone.  She let out a deep breath as the doors shut.

"Computer, engage privacy lock," she said quietly.

She took off her jacket and took a few steps into her living area, not bothering to turn the lights on.  Unfortunately, the first object that caught her attention in the darkened quarters was her copy of _The Odyssey that Chakotay had given her last year.  Blinking back tears, she picked it up and sank into her favorite chair. Running her fingers along the cover, she flipped it open and looked at her name in his flowing handwriting.  Unable to contain her pent up emotions any longer, she was overcome with heaving sobs, and curled up in the chair with his gift clutched to her chest._

*    *    *

Captain Janeway found herself walking through the deserted corridors of Voyager.  She had the sense that she was looking for something or someone, but she didn't know what.  Footsteps were coming from somewhere ahead of her, but she couldn't see past the bend in the corridor.  "Hello?" she called out, moving in the direction of the sound.

She caught sight of a flash of black and red moving around the next bend of the passageway.  Walking faster, she saw it again before it once more moved out of range.  It was ahead of her when she turned the next corner, and she could tell that it was a man in a command uniform.  She followed him around twists and turns, but he was always just ahead of her, rounding the next corner.  When she finally reached a long stretch of passageway, he was stopped a few meters in front of her.  He turned to his left and looked over his shoulder at her.  There was no mistaking a face that she knew almost as well as her own.

"Chakotay!" she yelled, closing the distance between them, but he moved into the passageway ahead of him.

She turned the corner to follow him, but collided with Lieutenant Torres.  She could see Chakotay moving farther away, and tried to push B'Elanna out of the way to follow him.  Before she made it around her, B'Elanna grabbed her by her upper arms to hold her in place. 

"They had what they were looking for," she said.

Ignoring her in her haste to follow Chakotay, the Captain released B'Elanna's hold on her and ran down the corridor.  She could no longer see Chakotay, but Tom Paris stepped out of a doorway on her right and addressed her.

"They got what they wanted," he said.

"Who?" asked the Captain impatiently.  When she got no answer, she continued down the corridor.  She hadn't gone more than a few meters when she was stopped by Tuvok standing along the side of the passageway.

"The answer to your question," he told her.

Frustrated and confused, she asked him, "What question?" He was silent, and she would have asked him again, but she saw Chakotay exit a door up ahead and walk down the corridor away from her. 

"Chakotay!" she yelled, chasing after him.  She came to an intersection and was confronted by three of her crewmembers.  Harry, Seven and the Doctor were each standing in one of the three passageways before her, but there was no sign of Chakotay.

"They had what they came for," said Harry on her left.

"I don't understand," she told him.

"They had what they wanted," said the Doctor in the path ahead of her.

"What are you talking about?" 

"The answer to your question," said Seven.

She was tired of talking in riddles.  "Where's Chakotay?" she snapped.  "I saw him here – I don't know where he went."

"The answer to your question." Neelix's voice came from behind her. She turned around and saw that he was pointing to a large set of doors beside him that she hadn't noticed before.  She pushed past him, opened the doors, and walked into Shuttle Bay 2.  The battered Delta Flyer was in front if her, and Harry was repairing the edge of the hull breach in the front section.  When she walked in, he stopped what he was doing and came over to her.

"They had what they wanted," he said.

"_Who?" she asked in frustration.  "Where's Chakotay?"_

Neelix spoke from behind her and she spun around to face him.  "They _had what they __wanted."_

"Stop talking in circles! What are you talking about?"

She heard Tom's voice and when she turned back around he was standing next to Harry.

"The answer to your question," he told her.

"What question? I don't know what you mean."

Now the Doctor was behind her, standing next to Neelix. "She's confused," he said sadly, shaking his head.

Seven of Nine was beside him. Sounding disappointed, she added, "She does not understand."

"I don't care if I understand – I just want to find Chakotay."

Tuvok was on her left now, on the other side of Neelix. "That is most illogical," he said.  Before she could respond, B'Elanna spoke up on the opposite side of the circle that had now formed around the Captain.

"_You're not listening!" she seethed. "__They had what they wanted."_

Captain Janeway was surrounded now and began to panic as they closed in on her.

She gasped and woke up with a start in a cold sweat.  She sat upright and discovered that she was still in her chair in her quarters.  _I must have fallen asleep, she realized.  She tried to shake off the nightmare as her heart continued to race, and got out of the chair. _

"Computer, one cup of coffee, black." 

She retrieved the drink and walked towards the windows, trying to remember her dream.  She had been chasing something…no; she had been looking for someone…Chakotay.  All the weight of her emotions from the day came crashing down on her again.  She tried to shake it off and took a refreshing sip of coffee, cupping her hands around the mug to absorb the heat.  She turned away from the window when the phrase came to her in a flash. 

_They had what they wanted._

"The answer to your question," she whispered.  She tried to forget it at first, but her gut told her that this was more that just a dream, so instead she tried to think of what question it referred to.  What had been on her mind lately?  Morale problems, personnel difficulties, trying to replace Tuvok as chief of security, the energy shortage.  All these things came to mind, but none of them made sense.  She rubbed her temple absentmindedly and walked around the room.  She had not turned on the lights and was still not fully awake, and she walked into a small bookshelf, knocking a number of books on the floor. 

"Great," she muttered and leaned down to pick them up.  She replaced a few of them on the shelf, but one that had fallen open caught her attention and she picked it up.  She was about to close it and put it back on the shelf when her eye was drawn to a particular passage in the middle of the page.

_Make me to see't ; or, at least, so prove it,_

_That the probation bear no hinge or loop_

_To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life!_

She closed the book and looked at the cover.  It was a volume of Shakespeare that she had had since high school, and the book had opened to a section of _Othello.  She had a nagging feeling that the passage she had noticed was important or familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on it.  She put the book back on the shelf, picked up her coffee, and walked across the room.  It felt like she was trying to put a puzzle together, with all the pieces in front of her but no idea what it was supposed to look like. _

She was staring at the stars streaking by, trying to figure it all out, when something in her mind suddenly fell into place.  The question from her dream.  The question that she had asked but that nobody had answered; the question that she had tried to ignore; the question that had been gnawing at the back of her mind since the staff meeting a month ago:  _Why did the Vaadwaur leave?_

Her mind working furiously now, she moved to her desk and sat down.  Why did the Vaadwaur retreat just when the Delta Flyer was vulnerable?  That had been bugging her since day one.

"'They had what they wanted,'" she muttered. "But what did they take?"  As far as she could remember, nothing had been missing from the Delta Flyer.  Well, almost nothing – Chakotay had not returned from that away mission.  She tried to dismiss that thought – she couldn't afford to start that again.  Tuvok was probably right – it was probably just denial.

The passage from Shakespeare came to mind.  Proof without a doubt – there certainly hadn't been a great deal of evidence, and there was more than enough room for doubt.  However, she knew if she started thinking along those lines, she wouldn't be able to stop and would suffer the pain of losing him all over again when she reached the same conclusion that they had come to a month ago.

They had to have taken something else. 

She took another sip of coffee and pulled her computer terminal over.  "Computer, access all sensor data and logs from the attack on the Delta Flyer on stardate 54645," she ordered. 

_Access established._

What might the Vaadwaur have wanted? Information, maybe. "Was there any unauthorized access to the Delta Flyer systems or database during the attack?" 

_Negative._

"Display record of all system and computer core access from time index 147.3," she ordered in order to confirm this herself. 

*    *    *

After three hours of searching the sensor logs, she was almost ready to give up.  She had gone through all the sensor readings from the attack up to a few seconds before the hull breach.  She was satisfied that the Vaadwaur had not hacked into the Delta Flyer computer.  She had also checked the equipment inventory to see if anything was missing, but everything except what little was in the section of the hull breach was accounted for.  She started to get up for her sixth cup of coffee of the night when a reading caught her attention.  At first glance it seemed like some kind of weapons signature, but when she examined it closer it didn't match the signature of the other weapons fire from during the attack. 

"Computer, isolate reading from grid 3 at time index 223.4 and magnify." 

Sure enough, it was different – definitely not from the weapons fire.  "Identify."

_Insufficient sensor data._

"Run a full spectral analysis and cross-reference with Voyager's sensor records.  Indicate any possible matches." 

_Analysis in progress._

She got up slowly and stretched.  This would probably take a while. "Estimated time to completion."

_Approximately three hours, forty minutes. _

She left the computer to process her request and went to her bedroom to catch a few hours sleep before the analysis was complete.  She was planning on joining the away team when they arrived at the planet, and if she didn't look rested Tuvok probably wouldn't let her off the ship.

*    *    *

The chirping of her commbadge roused the Captain from sleep three and a half hours later.

_Bridge to Captain Janeway, came Tuvok's disembodied voice. _

She rolled over slowly.  She was still in uniform, minus her jacket, and she was laying on top of her bed with a small blanket over her legs. Reaching over to the table beside her bed she picked up her commbadge. 

"Go ahead, Tuvok." 

_We are in orbit of the planet._

"Acknowledged.  Tell the away team to meet me in transporter room two."

_Understood._

She walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.  The face that greeted her looked vaguely familiar, but she didn't remember looking so tired.  She splashed some water on her face and walked back to the living area.  She grabbed her jacket off the back of a chair, and looked at the screen of her computer terminal.  _Analysis in progress, said the screen.  It would probably be finished within a few minutes, but the away mission took priority so she put on her jacket, grabbed her commbadge, and walked out the door.  She was unable to hear her computer when about ten seconds after the door closed behind her, her terminal beeped. _

_Analysis complete.__  Probable match found._

On the top half of the screen was the signature she had been analyzing, but on the bottom half there was something new.  A similar signature was displayed, and the matching portions were highlighted, with the words "97% MATCH" superimposed on it.  To the left, this signature was identified: Stardate 53167 – Vaadwaur transporter signature.

*    *    *

The away team materialized on the planet.  It consisted of the Captain, Seven, Lieutenants Paris and Torres, and three other crewmembers.

Captain Janeway looked around at their surroundings.  They were standing in the middle of a sparse rocky area in what resembled the deserts of southwestern North America.  There was a mountain range to the north, and to the south a wall of rocky cliffs close to their position.  Ahead and behind them, the desert stretched out endlessly. 

"B'Elanna – the main dilithium deposit?" 

"Over that way, Captain.  Looks like it's in a canyon beyond those cliffs to the south." 

The away team moved in that direction and soon reached the area.  At first, it had appeared to be a wall of solid rock but as they moved closer they could see an opening in the rock about five meters across that led into a small canyon.   While B'Elanna and her team prepared the mining equipment, the Captain surveyed the area. They were in a long, narrow canyon, boxed in on three sides.  In front of them, the south side of the canyon was bordered by a narrow gorge, not very deep but still dangerous due to the sharp, jagged rocks along the bottom.  To their right was a narrow cliff about ten meters high, and the canyon was open-ended on the left to the east.  Behind them to the north, where they had entered the canyon, was another long cliff also about ten meters in height, and it continued as far as they could see.  The floor of the canyon was not flat, and a little ways down the canyon, towards the eastern open end, the ground dropped off suddenly before flattening out again, creating a small cliff a few meters in height. 

"Nicoletti, you and Yosa set up over there," ordered B'Elanna, pointing to the lower cliff to the east.

"Yes, sir," replied Nicoletti, gathering up her equipment. 

The Captain continued her survey of the area, but was interrupted a few moments later by B'Elanna.

"Captain – would you mind taking a look at this?" 

The Captain walked over to where Seven and B'Elanna were consulting their tricorders while Tom and Ensign Ashmore worked with more of the mining equipment. 

"What is it?"

"We're having trouble localizing the dilithium, which shouldn't be a problem at this range." 

"The readings appear to be erratic," added Seven. 

Pulling out her own tricorder, the Captain examined the readings herself.  "You're right – that is unusual." She looked around uneasily. "Try scanning for trace amounts of trilithium. That should help you localize the deposit." 

Seven frowned as she did exactly that. "I'm not detecting any trilithium at all." 

"That's impossible," said B'Elanna. "I've never seen a natural dilithium source that's pure…until now, it seems," she added as she took her own readings. 

"You're right – that is impossible," said the Captain.  "Any natural dilithium deposit would have trace amounts of trilithium.  Unless there's no dilithium here at all..." 

"Intuition, Captain?" queried Seven. 

"You could say that," she said as she looked around warily, then hit her commbadge. "Janeway to Voyager."

There was no answer. 

Tom tried his commbadge.  "Away team to Voyager, please respond."

When silence greeted him, they pulled out their phasers.

On Voyager, Tuvok responded to the Captain's call. "Tuvok here, Captain."  After a few seconds, they heard Tom's voice over the comm.

_Away team to Voyager, please respond._

Tuvok answered again. "Go ahead."  When there was no answer, he turned around to face Harry at Ops. "Ensign?" 

Harry examined his controls.  "I don't know…it looks like there's some sort of interference just below the atmosphere.  The signals from the surface are making it through, but our signals are being reflected.  They can't hear us."

"Why was it not detected before?"

"It wasn't there before.  If it had been, they wouldn't have been able to beam down." 

"Can you get a transporter lock on them?" 

"No – the beam will be reflected just like our comm signals, but if I could get a shuttle under the interference, I could use its transporter." 

"Tell Ensign Baytart to prepare a shuttle," ordered Tuvok.

"But, sir, I could do it," Harry insisted. 

"You are needed on the bridge, Mr. Kim.  Ensign Baytart is perfectly capable of piloting a shuttle, and I need you to watch for any sign of trouble on the surface.  Do you have sensors?" 

"It's kind of disrupted, but yes, I've got them on sensors." 

"Inform me if you see anything unusual." 

"Aye, sir."

The Captain turned around in the direction that Nicoletti and Yosa were carrying their equipment, but saw that they were out of hearing range. 

"Janeway to Nicoletti," she said, trying her commbadge.  She sighed with relief when she heard the Lieutenant's voice over the comm. 

_Yes, Captain?_

"Arm yourselves and report back to our position immediately." 

_Yes, ma'am.  Is there something wrong?_

"Not yet.  Janeway out." 

"Ensign," she began, addressing Ashmore, "Start packing up that mining equipment.  I think we – "  She was interrupted when a piece of equipment exploded beside her from a phaser blast. 

"Take cover!" she yelled. 

She and Tom were standing next to each other and crouched behind the same rock in front of the small cliff and a couple of meters from the edge of the gorge.  B'Elanna and Seven had taken cover near the edge of the gorge farther towards the entrance, and Ensign Ashmore was crouched behind a piece of mining equipment. 

Captain Janeway darted her eyes around, trying to find the source of the phaser fire. 

"Where the hell did that come from?" she whispered to Tom. 

"I don't know, but my guess would be up there." He pointed to the cliffs to the west. 

"Agreed." 

Movement behind a rock on the cliff ahead of her that Tom had indicated caught her attention.  She nudged Tom and pointed to it.  He nodded, seeing it as well, and then pointed to B'Elanna and Seven, who were beside the gorge and less protected from that cliff than they were. 

"Seven!" said the Captain quietly, but loud enough to catch the attention of the ex-Borg's sensitive hearing. When Seven turned around to look at her, she pointed to where she had seen the flash of movement.  Seven nodded her understanding and whispered to B'Elanna.  The Captain was about to warn Nicoletti and Yosa over the comm when another shot was fired from the cliff, striking a rock near her position. 

Able to see their attackers now, the Captain and Tom fired at them.  A Vaadwaur stepped out from behind a rock and shot back, and soon more Vaadwaur appeared on the cliff and fired at the away team.  They tried to return fire, but were in a difficult position defensively and it was hard to keep cover and fire at the same time.

On board Voyager, Harry's console beeped at him.  "Commander, I'm reading weapons fire from the surface." 

"Can you determine the status of the away team?" 

"It looks like they're all still there.  Sensors are cutting in and out, but I'm still picking up seven distinct signals."

"Keep me informed, Ensign."

One of the Vaadwaur shots hit the rock that protected the Captain and Tom, causing it to explode in front of them.  Some of the debris caught them in the face, and they were both bleeding from multiple cuts.  They were now virtually unprotected from the onslaught of phaser fire which was now coming from both in front of them where it had begun on the western cliff, and now also from the cliff to the north where more Vaadwaur had appeared.  The pile of mining equipment exploded in a massive fireball, sending debris flying everywhere.

"That was no phaser blast!" exclaimed Tom.

"They've got some kind of plasma grenades!" shouted the Captain to warn the rest of the away team.

She could hear Nicoletti and Yosa scrambling up the short path behind them, and she turned around to face them. 

"We're under attack!" she yelled over the phaser fire.  "Stay back!" 

Her warning came too late, as the two officers had already gained the higher ground and were moving for cover just as another plasma grenade was thrown from the cliffs in their direction.  It hit the ground near the rock formation they were trying to reach, sending both officers flying towards the wall of the canyon.  Janeway didn't have time to worry if they were alive or not, because she and Tom were taking the brunt of the attack since they were the only ones who were unprotected.  They were standing now, nearly back to back, with the Captain firing at the narrow western cliff where the firing had started and Tom firing at the northern cliff opposite the gorge.

She was trying to fire, duck, and strategize at the same time when she saw a plasma grenade flying directly at her and Tom from the western cliff.  Taking two steps back, she lifted her phaser and fired at it in midair, detonating it before it hit the ground in front of her. 

The blast caught Tom in the back.  He was thrown forward, and he felt like someone had set fire to the left side of his face before he slipped into unconsciousness. 

The explosion knocked the Captain backwards off her feet, and she seemed to fly through the air forever before she hit the ground on the lower area where Nicoletti and Yosa had been deployed.  The last thing she remembered was her head hitting the ground with a thud before darkness enveloped her.


	3. The Prisoners

DISCLAIMER:   You all know the drill - Paramount is God.  All hail Paramount.  They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go.  All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish).

SUMMARY: With the Vaadwaur's successful capture of Captain Janeway, she and Chakotay must survive their captors' attempts to obtain Voyager's command codes.

THE LONG ROAD HOME 

SEPARATIONS

CHAPTER THREE : THE PRISONERS

B'Elanna and Seven were firing at the Vaadwaur on the cliff opposite the gorge when they felt the blast from the plasma grenade and ducked to avoid the flying debris.  Realizing with dread which direction the blast had come from, B'Elanna looked over to the spot where Tom had been moments ago.  Where he had been standing there was now a smoking crater and she could see his inert form laying a few feet away from the impact. 

"Tom!"

She jumped up and tried to move towards him, but Seven held her back. 

"Let go of me!  He's hurt!" 

"It is safer to stay where we are.  There is no protection and you would be an easy target." Softening her voice, she added, "You will not be able to help him if you are injured as well."

B'Elanna was about to retort when she realized that Seven had a point.  She would be out in the open if she went to Tom, and she knew that she couldn't put herself and her child in that kind of danger.

Seven tried to reassure her. "It does not appear that he was near enough to the blast to be severely injured.  He is most likely unconscious."

They were forced to cut their conversation short by a sudden volley of phaser fire from the cliffs above them.  They returned fire and took cover again.

"Did you hear something?" asked B'Elanna suddenly.

"No," replied Seven, but then she listened and did hear something.  It was a distorted signal coming through their commbadges.

…_to away team.__ Do you read?  This is Ensign Baytart, please respond._

"Torres here, Ensign.  We are under attack…"

…_and require immediate assistance.  Can you beam us out?_

Baytart's shuttle was descending through the planet's atmosphere.  "Not until I clear the ionosphere and get under the interference.  I'll need another minute."

_I don't know if we've  got another minute.  We're pinned down and have taken casualties._

"Can you give us some cover fire?" continued B'Elanna.  Seven was busy trying to keep the Vaadwaur at bay while B'Elanna talked with Baytart.

_Affirmative.__  Just tell me where you want it._

"The top of the cliffs surrounding our position.  There are at least a dozen Vaadwaur stationed up there." 

_I've got the position on sensors but I'm not reading anyone up there._

"Believe me, they're there," she muttered as another phaser blast hit the rock they were hiding behind.

A phaser shot came from the sky and connected with the western cliff next to B'Elanna and Seven.  No more shots were fired from there, and after a few intermittent shots the phaser fire from the northern cliff opposite the gorge stopped as well.  B'Elanna and Seven looked at each other.  After waiting a few more seconds to make sure that the ambush was over, B'Elanna ran towards Tom while Seven covered her.  She could see Nicoletti and Yosa laying on the ground, unmoving.  Ensign Ashmore was making his way towards them.  She reached Tom's side and knelt down.  Just as she turned him over and saw the burns on his face, Baytart's voice came over the comm again.

_I've cleared the ionosphere.  I'm locking onto all your commbadges and getting you out of there._

"Acknowledged," answered Seven before the entire away team dematerialized. 

As soon as transport was complete, B'Elanna tossed Ashmore a medical tricorder and grabbed another one for herself.  She examined Tom, and was relieved to find that he was not critically injured.  He had some nasty looking burns on the left side of his face and some internal injuries, but he would recover.

Seven looked around the back of the shuttle and realized that not all the away team was accounted for.  Ensign Ashmore was there, and Nicoletti and Yosa were injured but accounted for as well as herself and Lieutenants Paris and Torres.  But there was someone else conspicuously absent.  She moved quickly to the front of the shuttle.

"Ensign Baytart.  Where is the Captain?  She did not transport with us." 

Baytart looked at his console in confusion. "I…I don't know…I'm not reading her commbadge on scanners."

"Her commbadge may have been damaged.  Scan for her bio-signature." 

He punched in commands on his console. "I'm…not reading it either." He turned around, concerned. "Was she with the rest of you?" 

"I believe so.  Keep searching while I ask the others."  She returned to the back of the shuttle. "Does anyone know the whereabouts of Captain Janeway?" 

B'Elanna was leaning over Tom, and she bolted upright.  "What do you mean? She's not here?" she asked, looking around for the first time.

"She did not transport with us and Ensign Baytart is unable to locate her.  Did you see her before we beamed out?"

"No – the last time I saw her was while the fighting was still going on." She stopped as Tom started to come to.  "Tom…it's all right, you're safe."

He groaned. "Are you okay?" 

"I'm fine…Tom, do you know where the Captain is?"

"She was…" He moaned as he tried to sit up. "…right beside me when something blew me off my feet." He looked around and concern filled his voice.  "Why…didn't you find her?"

Silence fell in the back of the shuttlecraft.  They had all seen Tom laying face down in the dirt…right next to a huge smoking hole in the ground.

The inert form of Captain Janeway was surrounded by Vaadwaur soldiers.  They were concealed in the small cliff that divided the floor of the canyon.  A small cave in the wall of the cliff was hidden with a holographic projection, and they had erected a dampening field to mask their presence.  They had stolen both technologies from other races, and they were proving to be extremely useful.

"Did you get her communicator disabled?" asked the one in charge, a female. 

"Yes," answered another. "I overloaded the primary circuits.  They won't be able to detect it."

"Then we wait," answered the leader, satisfied.

"For how long?" asked another of the soldiers. "We could be discovered – what if they come back?"

"We have waited 900 years to reclaim our glory – a few days in here is nothing. Remember that we will be well rewarded since we were so fortunate as to get their Captain. And Voyager won't come back because they can't detect us.  This technology is probably far beyond their knowledge."

"Besides," interjected another Vaadwaur, "They know now that there is no dilithium here and will move on to another source."

The leader looked at Janeway.  "When they leave the system, Commander Takken can come and fetch his new…toy."

*    *    *

Voyager's crew was devastated.  For the second time since they had been in the Delta Quadrant, the crew was without their Captain and their First Officer.  This time, however, they did not have the consolation that they were alive and thriving in a virtual paradise.  This time, there was no hope of going back for them, no chance of finding a miracle cure or them following Voyager in a shuttle.

As soon as they had realized the Captain was missing, the shuttle had gone back and landed on the cliffs where the Vaadwaur had been positioned and B'Elanna and Seven had beamed down to the site of the ambush as soon as they were sure that the Vaadwaur were gone.  They found no trace of the Captain in the immediate area, and they proceeded to check the gorge and the lower area Nicoletti and Yosa had been.  They were meticulous, but there appeared to be no place where she could be concealed.  Their tricorders and Seven's Borg implants were unable to detect the concealed cave or the people inside it, and they returned to the shuttle with the conclusion that the Captain had been vaporized by the powerful plasma grenade.

Tuvok had assumed command but was not well equipped to deal with the emotional fallout of the Captain's death only a month after the loss of their First Officer.  He had made Tom the acting First Officer, probably against his inclination, and Tom was able to help the crew somewhat, but he was devastated as well and blamed himself for the Captain's death since he had been next to her. 

He and B'Elanna had volunteered to clean out the Captain's quarters, but they couldn't bring themselves to recycle most of her things and were storing them instead.

B'Elanna picked up the copy of _The Odyssey that was still sitting on the chair and smiled.  "I think I might keep this.  Chakotay gave it to her.  Do you know the story?"_

"Kind of," he said.  "From what I remember, it seems appropriate – although I don't remember the hero dying before he got home," he added bitterly.

"I know…but I think the Captain wanted to get home more for the crew than for herself.  You know how guilty she felt about stranding us here."

"Guilt – now _there's something I can identify with." He snorted.  "My dad's gonna __love this.  I managed to get his protégé __and her First Officer killed." _

B'Elanna walked over to the Captain's desk and folded the computer terminal closed without looking at the screen. "Tom – don't start this again.  We were _ambushed.  There was nothing you could have done."_

"She was _right beside me," he insisted.  "I could have pulled her out of the way if I'd seen it coming." _

"But you didn't…and neither did she or she would have gotten both of you out of the way." 

"I still can't believe she's gone," he said quietly, falling into one of the chairs. 

"I know…the ship seems so empty without them…" 

There was a saddened silence before Tom spoke again. 

"B'Elanna, I was thinking…what do you think about naming our daughter Kathryn?"

His wife hesitated at this and didn't answer. 

"What – you don't think it's a good idea?"

"It's not that," she insisted. "It's just that…I told her and Chakotay that we were thinking of naming her Miral…and they were both thrilled with the idea.  They thought it was wonderful, so…I'd like to use it.  We could always give her a middle name." 

He nodded, and pulled her to him so she was sitting on his lap in the chair.  "Or…we could always have another kid," he whispered in her ear.

"One step at a time," she grinned at him.  She rested her head on his shoulder and they sat there for a long time, looking around the quarters and reminiscing about Captain Janeway.

*    *    *

Chakotay was sitting in the corner of his cell trying to figure out for the millionth time how long he had been here.  He had finally concluded that they were lying when they told him that it had been two months –  he estimated that he hadn't been here more than six weeks, and it was probably more like four or five.  Even so, Voyager was probably long gone.

They interrogated him often, or so it seemed to him.  He had lost count of the number of times he had been dragged to the dark chamber where they pounded him for information.  No matter how many times he refused to tell them anything or told them that the information they wanted was useless, they refused to listen.  Thoughts of Kathryn and the crew were what had sustained him these past few weeks.  He prayed that they were safe, and knew that by keeping silent he was helping to make sure they stayed that way.  He wondered about his friends – B'Elanna, Tom, Harry, even Tuvok and Seven.  He would often sit in the silence of the cell and imagine that he was back on Voyager, sharing a poker game with Tom or going to the holodeck with B'Elanna.  He tried to guess what they were doing, what their day had been like, but most of all he thought about Kathryn.  He had often encouraged her to get to know some of the crew better, but she had never really taken his advice and he was the only person that she saw regularly off duty.  With him gone, he feared that she wouldn't have anyone to turn to, and he wished that he was with her. 

He was startled from his thoughts by the sound of a commotion in the corridor outside his cell.  It had been a few days since they had last come for him, so he wondered if he was due for another interrogation.  The other possibility was a new prisoner.  There were lots of prison cells in this area of the ship.  He recognized some of the other prisoners as Turei, but many species were unfamiliar to him.  Every once in a while a new prisoner would be brought in and everybody got moved around.  They liked to keep one prisoner to a cell, but the prison was filling up, and they never kept different species in the same cell.

Footsteps drew closer to his cell, and he tensed up instinctively.  Two Vaadwaur appeared at the entrance to his cell.  They had an unconscious form facedown between them, and were holding the prisoner up by the biceps while the feet dragged limply behind.  He recognized the hair and the uniform before the forcefield was deactivated and she was dropped on the floor. 

The instant the guards left, he ran to her and turned his new cellmate over to see the bleeding, battered face of his Captain. He let out an involuntary gasp and traced his fingers along the severe burns on her face.  He put his arms under her and gently carried her limp form over to the bed sticking out from the wall.  His side was still tender and he grunted in pain.  He squeezed her hand and gently called her name as she moved slightly. 

Her eyes fluttered open and through a haze she saw Chakotay standing above her.  _I must be dreaming again, she thought groggily.  __This isn't real, she told herself before darkness closed in again._

He could see her eyes were open, but she wasn't responding and didn't seem to recognize him.  Her eyes only remained open for a few seconds before they closed again and she slipped into unconsciousness.

*    *    *

A few hours later, Captain Janeway struggled to pull herself out of the fog that clouded her mind.  Her eyes felt like lead weights and it took her a few tries to get them open.  She didn't recognize her surroundings, but she was laying flat on her back and could only see a metal roof above her and a wall to her right.  She tilted her head up, but everything swam so she lay her head back down.  She could feel something warm against her leg, but she didn't know what it was.  Slower this time, she raised her head and then propped herself up on her elbows.  She gasped when she saw the warm object that was resting on her leg – it was Chakotay's head.  He was sitting on the ground next to the bed, and was sleeping with his arm resting on the bed and the side of his head resting gently against her knee.  She stared at him for a full minute before she dared to speak, afraid that she was dreaming or hallucinating.

"Chakotay?"

He woke up with a start, surprised that he had drifted off, and looked up to see her staring at him, propped up on her elbows.

"How do you feel?"

"Shocked," she said.  "What…How…" Her voice failed her as her grief and regret from the past month came crashing down on her.

"We thought you were dead," she whispered after a few moments.

He slid towards her and sat beside her on the bed to embrace her.  She put her head on his shoulder, wrapped her arms around his chest and buried her face in his shoulder with relief.  When she pulled herself together a few minutes later, she pulled away so she could see his face and put her hand alongside his cheek.

"We thought you were dead," she repeated. "You have no idea how lost I was without you."  She moved her legs to give him more room and he sat beside her. 

She wanted to know what had happened to him, so they shared what they each knew about the attack on the Flyer.  She also told him about her dream and the ambush on the planet.

"If I'd only waited fifteen minutes before joining the away team, I might have found something," she explained.  "From what you've told me, I must have hit on the transporter beam that got you off the Flyer.  And then neither of us would be here," she sighed.  "Do you really think the crew believes that I'm dead?"

He shrugged.  "Probably." He reached up and gently ran his fingers over the raw red patch on her cheek from the plasma grenade. "If you were that close to a plasma explosion, they could have faked your death.  They seem to want to avoid a confrontation with Voyager unless they have an advantage."

"And we're supposed to give them that advantage." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Chakotay…I'm so sorry that I didn't come after you.  I should have looked harder."

"It's not your fault, Kathryn," he assured her.

"You know…Voyager could be on our tail already," she realized.  "If anyone but a first-year cadet looks at my computer terminal they'll figure out that I was onto something about the attack on the Flyer and they'll come looking for you." 

"If they can find us." 

They heard footsteps coming down the corridor.  Chakotay put his hand on her leg protectively – he suspected that Takken was coming to check out his new prisoner.  Sure enough, the Commander appeared at the door with three guards. 

"Good – she's awake.  Take her to the interrogation chamber." 

One of the guards trained a weapon on them while the other two moved forward and tried to grab the Captain.

"Leave her alone!" spat Chakotay, putting himself in front of her.

"Fine," said Takken. "Bring him as well." 

The two guards dragged Chakotay out of the cell while the third one moved forward and followed with the Captain.  They were taken to a dark room with a solitary chair in the middle.  Takken shoved her into the chair and had one of the other guards bring in a similar one for Chakotay, which he placed opposite the Captain's.  Their wrists were bound by metal shackles behind their backs, and Takken began circling them.

"As your comrade has no doubt informed you, Captain," he began, "We are intent on acquiring Voyager's technology.  Since you did free us from stasis, we are willing to spare your crew…" He stopped in front of her chair and leaned forward until his face was inches from hers. "…_if you are willing to give us your command codes." _

"No deal," she drawled. "But I'll make _you a deal – let us go and I'll forget any of this ever happened." _

He drew back, surprised at her vehemence.  Chakotay had merely been stoic and silent after his first few sessions, but this one was prepared to confront him. 

"You really should think about it," Janeway continued. Her voice grew cold.  "Because I assure you that you don't want to have to deal with my crew when they come looking for us."

"They won't be looking for you because they don't know that you're missing."

"Don't underestimate them," said Chakotay. 

"You mean like I did when we took you?" Takken retorted.  "They still think you're dead – both of you." 

"Not for long," she said with a smug grin on her face. "I discovered evidence of the transporter beam that you used on Chakotay and it's only a matter of time before my crew finds it as well." 

He was thrown for a minute, but he recovered and invaded her personal space again.  "The command codes – _now." _

When she didn't respond, he stood up and delivered a vicious backhand to her face where she was already burned from the plasma grenade.  The blow jarred her clenched jaws, crushing her lips and nose.  She felt blood flow in her mouth and her vision darkened momentarily.

Chakotay kept still with difficulty.  He wanted to scream at the guards and protect his Captain, but he knew that anything he did would make it worse. 

Takken turned around to face Chakotay.  "Perhaps you would be willing to give them to us now?"

When he was met with silence, he nodded and turned back to Janeway.  "I suspected as much."

*    *    *

Captain Janeway slowly came to back in the cell.  She ached all over, and her face felt like it was split in two.  She momentarily wished for the painless oblivion of unconsciousness before she remembered Chakotay.  She wondered if they if they had hurt him.  They had literally pounded her for hours trying to get her to reveal Voyager's command codes.  She had told them that they were useless since there had been a change in command, but they had refused to listen. She was hoping that they had not continued on Chakotay after she passed out when she felt his gentle touch on the side of her face.  She wasn't on the bed this time – she was propped up against the wall of the cell and he was kneeling in front of her. 

"Welcome back," he said as she slowly opened her eyes. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to join me again." The concern in his voice belied his joking words.

"Wouldn't miss it," she replied with a grin. He picked up a piece of his jacket that he had torn off and dipped it in a glass of water, then gently applied it to one of the burns on her face, causing her to flinch.

"Sorry," he said, eyeing her with concern. 

She waved him off. "That's okay, go ahead."  She looked at him carefully, noticing the remnants of cuts and bruises on his face, and he favored his side like he was injured.

"You've been going through this for a month?" she asked incredulously.

"More or less.  At least before, I knew that I was keeping you and the rest of the crew safe by remaining silent.  Now I have to watch you get beaten to a pulp right in front of me and there's nothing I can do about it."

"Hey," she said, putting her hand over his on her face.  "We'll find a way out of here.  I promise.  Now, while you're doing that, tell me more about this Commander Takken and what he wants."

*    *    *

Just over two weeks later, they found themselves in the interrogation room again.  Takken had come for one or both of them at least once a day since Janeway had arrived.  At least it was easier to keep track of time now.  It was rare that they were both unconscious at the same time, so they were able to tell as the days turned into weeks.  They were both the worse for wear, sporting ugly cuts and bruises on their faces, and they could feel the bruises on their upper bodies that were concealed by their uniforms.  The burns on Captain Janeway's face from the plasma grenade had begun to heal, but they were still sensitive because Takken liked to hit her there and continually aggravated the wounds.

They were both restrained in the same chairs as the first interrogation, but this particular session was unusual because Takken and the guards were huddled in a corner with a couple of Vaadwaur they hadn't seen before.  Chakotay caught the Captain's eye and gestured with his head toward the group with a raised eyebrow.  She frowned and shrugged her shoulders.  They had been communicating nonverbally more often, especially when there were guards around.  They had always been able to read each other well, so communicating like this was a natural step to avoid scrutiny.  The group was still talking in the corner and seemed to be ignoring them. 

_Superiors? mouthed Janeway._

Chakotay shrugged and then after a moment's thought shook his head.  It looked like Takken was still giving orders, so he didn't think that the newcomers were his bosses.

Takken finally broke from the group and walked toward them, followed by one of the strangers.  Janeway's flinched momentarily when she saw that the subordinate was carrying some piece of equipment in his hand. 

"Are you prepared to surrender your command codes?" Takken demanded.  Janeway's only reply was a defiant glare.  "Very well, then.  You will be the first of our prisoners to experience our new acquisition."

He motioned to the Vaadwaur behind him who was carrying the equipment.  He handed a small box about ten centimeters square to Takken and moved towards Janeway with the other item.  It was a thin band of metal in a half-circle with what looked like electrodes at each end.  Janeway drew back when he brought it towards her face, but she had nowhere to go and he secured it to her forehead so that the electrodes were on her temples and the band of metal spanned her forehead in between them.  The subordinate withdrew and Takken began circling her, toying with the box in his hand.  He pushed a button on it, and she reacted immediately. There was a burning sensation where the electrodes were touching her temples, and then she felt as though someone had set her legs on fire and she screamed in anguish.  The skin on her legs felt like it was melting, and the pain was nearly unbearable.  The pain subsided after about a minute, and she could faintly hear Chakotay yelling, followed by a loud thump that she assumed was one of the guards hitting him.  Her vision was blurry for a few more seconds before she could see Takken standing in front of her.

"Interesting, isn't it," he commented. "We recently obtained it from a species a few hundred light-years from here with a particularly vicious criminal justice system.  It directly stimulates the primary sensory cortex of the brain, producing the sensation of pain.  That setting mimics third-degree burns." He looked at the box in his hand as if it were a religious object.  "An ingenious device."  He pressed another button and she experienced a searing pain in her chest, like someone was stabbing her with a jagged object.  She was unable to even draw a breath to scream, and she writhed in silent agony before falling limp when the pain subsided.  When she was aware of her surroundings again, she could hear Takken addressing Chakotay, who had probably been objecting again. 

"Don't worry, Commander, you'll get your turn eventually if the Captain refuses to cooperate."  He turned to her. "Well, Captain…excruciating, isn't it?  Perhaps now you're more willing to share information."

She took a couple of jagged breaths before she was able to spit out her answer.  "Sorry to disappoint you." 

He shrugged and used the box again, sending a burning pain up her spine.  It started in waves, but slowly became a single unbearable sensation of pain.  At first she wasn't aware of anything but the agonizing sensation that moved up her back, but then she noticed the darkness closing in from the edge of her blurry vision.  She tried to fight it but it kept coming.   She could vaguely hear someone screaming, and just before the darkness closed in on her completely she realized that it was her.

*    *    *

The next sensation that she was aware of was that she felt like she was drowning; she was surrounded by darkness, and she was struggling to reach the surface but with no success.  She slowly realized that she had been unconscious,  and gradually became aware of a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes felt like they were fused shut, and she hurt all over.  She could tell that she was laying on her side, but had no idea where she was.  The memory of the torture come back to her in a rush, and she heard Chakotay calling her name. 

"Kathryn?  Can you hear me?"

She wanted to answer him, but when she tried to, nothing happened.  She could tell that she was squeezing her hand, and with a great deal of effort and concentration she gently squeezed back.

His tone became more urgent. "Kathryn?  Wake up." 

This time when she tried, she was able to open her eyes.  "Hi," she whispered weakly. 

His shoulders sagged with relief.  "Hi yourself.  You gave me quite a scare."  She was laying on her side on the small bed, and he was crouched down opposite her face with one hand on her shoulder and the other squeezing her hand.  He moved the hand on her shoulder up to her face, cupping her cheek affectionately.

"How long was I out for?" she asked as she shifted with a soft groan.

"I'd guess three or four hours." His face was lined with concern. "It must have been awful," he said as he helped her sit up. 

"God, Chakotay…It was excruciating," she said.  "It felt like…I can't even describe it.  It's beyond anything I've ever experienced.  You can't imagine how real it felt."

"I wish I could," he said, his voice edged with bitterness and regret.

She looked at him affectionately.  "I know you would have taken my place, and thank you for that…but I wouldn't wish that on anybody, especially someone I care about." 

He looked at her in surprise for a moment until he quickly convinced himself that she hadn't meant that in the way he had initially taken it, so he tried to push the thought from his mind.  She was sitting up on the edge of the bed now, leaning weakly against the wall with her eyes closed.  He was still sitting on the floor, with a hand on the side of her calf.  He slowly removed it as he got up.  

"I'll get you some water," he mumbled. 

She opened her eyes when he removed his hand from her leg.  She had liked it there – it felt comforting.  She realized now for the first time that she hadn't done anything about what she had gone through when she thought he had died.  She had realized that she cared deeply for him, and she had regretted pushing him away for so long.  Now here they were together, alone…maybe not in the best circumstances but she was with him – and here she was just letting him walk away again.  She had meant what she had said just now – she did care for him.  But he was so used to having to ignore comments like that from her that she wasn't too surprised when he moved quickly away. 

He came back towards the bed and offered her the glass of water as he sat beside her.  She drank it gratefully and handed him back the cup.  Gathering up her courage, she reached over and put her hand on his leg.  She felt him tense up and then relax under her touch. 

"Chakotay…I meant what I said just now.  I know now what that thing feels like…and if I had to watch them do that to you…it would be just as bad or probably even worse than going through it myself." He looked down at her hand and then slowly took it in his, running his thumb over the back of her hand before he looked up at her.  "I just can't stand to see them hurt you," he said quietly. 

"I know," she replied, and she quietly moved closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder.  He put an arm around her waist, and she shortly fell into a peaceful sleep.

*    *    *

Janeway was pacing back and forth in the cell like a caged animal while Chakotay was laying on the bed.  The Vaadwaur had waited about a week before they had used the synaptic stimulator again, but this time they had used in on Chakotay while she watched.  He had provoked them intentionally when they came for them so that he would get the worst of it.  A strategy for which she had chewed him out as soon as he had regained consciousness. 

_This has to stop, she thought, trying furiously to think of a way to escape as she paced.  "There has to be some way out of here!" she insisted aloud._

On the bed, Chakotay rolled over to look at her. "Kathryn, even if we got out of the cell and past the guards, where could we go?  We can't take over the whole ship." 

"What if we attacked the guards on the way _back to the cell," she continued, ignoring him.  "If they thought we were injured or unconscious, they might be more careless."_

"We usually _are injured or unconscious, or both," he reminded her._

She looked at him in frustration. "You're not helping, Chakotay." 

"Sorry, but it's hard to imagine fighting off a ship full of guards when your head feels like it's been in a supernova." 

She stopped pacing long enough to face him with her hands on her hips, trying but failing to seem angry. "It's your own fault, you know.  They would have left you alone if you hadn't provoked them."

"And if I hadn't, you'd be laying here instead of me," he came back at her.  "And although it _would keep you from pacing," he added with mock annoyance, "I think it's better this way."_

"You stubborn…" she began angrily, then sighed.  "I'm not getting into this again.  Now, help me think up a way out of this cell before you get killed in some misguided attempt to protect me."

"Fine," he said.  "On one condition – you don't do anything stupid."

"Like provoking a sadist with an extremely painful and dangerous torture device?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly," he replied, ignoring her sarcasm. "Okay, so…we get away from the guards.  Then what? Ask them to turn the ship around?" 

"No, you're right…we can't take control of the ship – but we could send a signal to Voyager." 

"Well, we don't know where their communications equipment is or how to get there, and we could be hundreds of light-years from Voyager's position."

"What do you suggest…that we just give up?" 

"No…I'm just trying to be realistic, like any good First Officer. Not to mention keeping you from doing something that'll get you killed."

Frustrated, she pushed over the chair that was in the cell.  Seeing the tray with the empty dishes on it from their last meal, she swung her foot at it.  The tray and its contents went flying in all directions towards the forcefield.  They bounced off it with a loud sizzle and the forcefield lit up.  She started pacing back and forth again when something caught her eye.  The tray and dishes were scattered along the length of the cell near the forcefield, but there was a familiar item outside in the corridor – one of the cups that had been on the tray.  She stared at it in disbelief.  She didn't think that it had been there before, but surely it couldn't have passed through the forcefield.  She moved over to the tray and shifted the clutter around with her foot.  There had been two cups before, but now there was only one.  She looked back at the cup in the hallway.  Noticing that she had stopped pacing, Chakotay sat up and addressed her when he saw her concentration.

"Kathryn…what is it?" 

"I kicked the tray…and one of the cups passed through the forcefield somehow." 

"What?" He got up and walked over to her.  She pointed out the cup. "How is that possible?" 

"I'm not sure.  Maybe there was a momentary fluctuation in the forcefield, or…" She trailed off as her eyes darted back and forth along the length of the forcefield. 

"Kathryn?"

"I just remembered a problem that Starfleet discovered years ago when they first installed forcefields in ship brigs."  She knelt down and picked up the tray and a cup.  She pushed the tray into the forcefield and moved it around, causing the forcefield to crackle and luminesce.  When she was passed the midpoint of the forcefield, she tossed the cup at an angle toward the other end, but it bounced off and landed at Chakotay's feet.  Still puzzled, he tossed it back to her.  Holding the tray against the forcefield, she moved it closer to the end of the forcefield and threw the cup again.  This time, it sailed through with a quiet snap.  Chakotay's jaw dropped and he stared at her. 

"How did you know how to do that?" 

"When Starfleet first implemented forcefields, they designed them to reroute additional power to any part of the grid that was being disrupted.  Like so," she said, touching the tray to the barrier and causing a loud zap and a flash of illumination. "What they didn't realize at first was that rerouting power to strengthen one section weakened the other areas of the grid, and the forcefield could be penetrated." She turned to him with blazing eyes.  "I think we've found our way out.  Now we just have to figure out what to do with it."

*    *    *

This time, it was Chakotay who was pacing back and forth in the cell.  Takken had come for them again about an hour after they had discovered the vulnerability of the forcefield, and this time Chakotay had been unable to stop them from using the synaptic device on the Captain.  Her agonized screams were still ringing in his ears, and he squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to shut them out.  Watching them do that to her was worse for him than experiencing the effects of the device himself had been. 

He continued pacing back and forth, occasionally casting an anxious glance at Kathryn.  By his estimation, she had been unconscious now for almost twelve hours – although maybe it just seemed like that long without having her to talk to.  He wouldn't normally be this impatient for her to regain consciousness – he knew that she would come to eventually and the longer she was out the more her body had a chance to recuperate – but he had figured out an escape plan and was eager to share it with her.  He heard her shift on the bed and moved to her side. 

"How do you feel?"

"Like I was in the middle of an antimatter explosion," she groaned. 

She noticed that he was in an unusually good mood.  Usually when she woke up his face was full of concern, but right now he looked like a kid at Christmas and was barely concealing a grin.

"What is it?" she asked, sitting up on her elbows.

"I want to show you something."

"What?"

"Our ticket home," he replied mysteriously as he helped her up. 

Chakotay helped her over to the entrance on shaky legs and pointed down the corridor in the opposite direction from the interrogation room.  Neither of them had been down that direction since they had first been brought in unconscious. 

"Do you see that shelf in the wall near the bend in the corridor?" 

"Yes."

"And can you see what's on it?"

She strained to see the small metallic object resting near the edge of a narrow shelf recessed in the wall.  When she recognized it, she gasped and squeezed Chakotay's arm. "My commbadge!"

"You did mention contacting Voyager." 

"Yes, but a commbadge has such a small range." She leaned her head on his shoulder.  "If they were close enough…"

They moved over to the wall of the cell with Chakotay still supporting her.  He sat down against the wall with his knees bent, and she leaned her back against his legs and rested her head on his knees. 

"It's a paradox," she said. "We could signal Voyager if they came close enough, but they won't come looking for us unless we signal them first." She sighed and closed her eyes.

"They could be anywhere," he agreed. "And as far as they're concerned, we're dead.  If somebody had discovered the analysis on your computer terminal, they'd probably have found us by now.  You've been here at least three weeks.  They won't be looking for us.  Unless…"

She turned her head to look at him as realization dawned on his face.  "Unless what?"

His mind was racing and he tried to explain while he was thinking. "Voyager won't come looking for us…so what if we went looking for them?" 

"How?  What do you mean?"

"What would Takken do if he thought he got the command codes out of us?"

Her eyes widened as she grasped his train of thought. "He'd go after Voyager," she whispered. "And with fake command codes, the crew wouldn't be in danger." 

"That's true…but he has to believe us.  I'm not sure he'd buy it if one of us suddenly folded."

"Maybe," she conceded. "So what if we appeared to compromise – give him something else instead?"

"Like what?"

"Technology.  The Vaadwaur in one respect are just like the Kazon – they want Voyager for its superior technology.  If they think they can get it, they'll go after Voyager with a vengeance." She was thinking furiously now. "What if we gave them a way to steal the technology?" 

"Voyager would go after them to get it back." 

"The more information we give Takken, the better," she said. "Because it will make the crew suspicious of where the information is coming from.  With the recent 'deaths' of the two commanding officers but no bodies, they might put two and two together." 

"If we made up a command code that was some sort of message, it would be like getting the Vaadwaur to send a coded transmission to Voyager for us." 

"Like a stardate!" she exclaimed. "The Vaadwaur probably wouldn't recognize it, but the crew might." 

"One step at a time," he said. "Tomorrow if the coast is clear we'll try and activate the commbadge, and then work on getting Voyager to find it." 

"Tomorrow?" she repeated incredulously. "Let's do it now before they come for us again." 

"This is going to take teamwork, Kathryn.  If you feel stronger tomorrow we'll talk."

*    *    *

The next day, the Captain was laying on the bed, rejuvenated after a few hours of sleep.  She was laying on her side with Chakotay still sleeping behind her, his arms wrapped around her.  They had decided after the first couple of nights that this was no time to be shy and that it was pointless for one of them to sleep on the uncomfortable floor when they could both fit on the bed.  When she let her guard down, she admitted to herself that she enjoyed it.  She had often imagined what it would be like to wake up next to him and feel his arms around her, although she had certainly never pictured it like this.  It was very soothing, however, and she felt safe.  His breath on the back of her neck and the rhythmic rising and falling of his chest next to her back told Kathryn that he was still sleeping, so she remained still so as not to disturb him and continued forming their escape plan in her mind.  If they gave the Vaadwaur a way to get some of Voyager's technology, without giving them anything that could actually harm the ship, she was certain that the crew would pursue them to get their equipment back.  When they caught up with the Vaadwaur, she thought that they would try to disable the shields and then transport anything with a Starfleet signature back to Voyager.  With any luck, that would include her commbadge.  She had considered having one of them wear it so that they could be transported, but she had soon discarded the idea as too risky.  The commbadge might be missed or discovered, and then they would be back to square one. 

"Two heads are better than one, you know." Chakotay's voice whispering in her ear startled her.  In her concentration she hadn't heard him wake up. "How are you feeling?" he asked. 

"Fine," she said, still thinking. She rolled over onto her back and noticed his penetrating gaze. "Really, Chakotay, I feel much better today." 

He looked satisfied with her assurances, so she told him what was on her mind as they untangled themselves and sat next to each other on the bed. "I think we should activate the commbadge now and figure out the rest later.  It's quiet right now and we never know when we'll lose the window of opportunity." 

"Right…you know, Kathryn, I might not be able to activate it," he said quietly.

"You're right," she replied. "_You might not be able to…but I think __I can."_

"What?" 

"I have more experience with commbadge systems than you.  You weren't planning on doing something this reckless all by yourself, were you? I guess I'm rubbing off on you."

"If we get caught – "

"That's why _you're going to keep watch while __I fix the commbadge."_

"It's too dangerous," he insisted. 

"Not as dangerous as if you do it by yourself. You said that this would take _teamwork, remember? Besides," she added, "You won't be able to protect me if you get yourself killed doing something stupid."_

Resigned, he decided to go along with her plan.  "Fine – but at the _first sign of trouble you're getting back to the cell. Agreed?" _

"Agreed."  She took the chair and pushed it over to him.  "Take this and shove it into the forcefield over there, like I did yesterday," she ordered, pointing. 

"Wait a minute – what are you going to do?" 

"I'm going to put my arm through the forcefield and deactivate it," she told him.

"I'll do it."

"No, you won't – Captain's prerogative.  Besides, my arms are smaller and there's a better chance that I can get through it." 

Deciding that it was useless to argue with her, he complied and after carefully checking the corridor for guards, he pushed the chair into the forcefield with a sizzle, holding it there.  At the other end, Kathryn was holding the tray and shoving it into the barrier here and there.  "A little to the left," she said, and when he moved the chair a little the tray finally poked through the forcefield near the edge.  She reached out and stuck her left arm through the forcefield.  It passed through it, but the forcefield was merely weakened, not deactivated, and she felt the skin on her arm blistering as it passed through the barrier.  She could see scorch marks forming on her sleeve as well, so she suspected that she would be badly burnt.  She reached over to the right and felt around the wall, connecting with the right button.  The forcefield deactivated, and she looked at Chakotay before taking off in the direction of the commbadge. 

"Keep watch," she said, pointing in the direction of the interrogation room and trying to ignore the pain in her arm.  "I'll move around the corner and watch from that direction while I work." 

He nodded. "Be careful – and good luck."


	4. The Plan

DISCLAIMER:   You all know the drill - Paramount is God.  All hail Paramount.  They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go.  All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish).

SUMMARY: Janeway and Chakotay devise a way to contact Voyager, and meet someone completely unexpected.

THE LONG ROAD HOME

SEPARATIONS

CHAPTER FOUR : THE PLAN

The Captain walked softly down the corridor, watching out for guards as she moved.  She reached the shelf safely and grabbed the commbadge.  She moved around the corner and took a few steps down the corridor so she could work underneath a light on the wall.  Holding the commbadge in front of her, she pulled the back of it off and looked inside.  Some of the main circuits were black and charred from some kind of overload, but the components underneath were unharmed.  She grinned – the backup systems were not active but they were clearly undamaged and it should be possible to reactivate it. 

"Hey – where the hell did you get that?" 

The voice from one of the nearby cells startled her.  She had hoped that the other prisoners would remain quiet.  Most were in pain or unconscious and hadn't even noticed her out of her cell.  She had tried to stick to the shadows until she needed the light to see, and now someone had noticed her.  She addressed the speaker while she continued to work.

"It's mine," she growled, then looked up towards the cell where the voice had come from. "They took it from me when I arrived." 

"From you…you're Starfleet?" said the voice, incredulous. 

She stared at the cell in surprise and took a step closer. "How did you know that?" The man who was speaking was sitting in the shadows in a corner of his cell. 

"I'm telepathic," he told her, "but I also recognized the commbadge.  Are you…from Voyager?"

"Yes," she said, returning her attention to the commbadge.  She looked back at him when he addressed her with awe in his voice.

"Captain Janeway?"

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye suspiciously for a few seconds before resuming her work. "You're quite the telepath." 

"I didn't need to be.  Half of Starfleet would recognize you, although your hair's different and you do look a little the worse for wear." 

Now she moved to the door of his cell. "Who _are you?" she asked._

The stranger stood up and moved out of the shadows. 

"Lieutenant Commander Mark Walker, U.S.S. Yukon."

He looked human, but his telepathic abilities and haunting dark eyes suggested that he was most likely Betazoid, and she could see that he was wearing a Starfleet uniform – or rather what had been a Starfleet uniform, because it was barely recognizable.  It was not the same style as what the Voyager crew wore, but she had noticed the updated uniforms in their transmissions from Starfleet.  He was tall, with dark hair, and he had a shadow on his face from a beard.  He would be handsome under different circumstances, but he was thin and pale and he had a long cut on his cheek. 

"You're Starfleet," she said with disbelief. "How did you get here?" 

"Hopefully I'll tell you later…right now you should fix your commbadge." 

Overcoming her shock, she began working again. "Do me a favor, _Commander…keep an eye out for guards while I work."  She tried to remember what she knew about commbadge circuitry as she examined the device.  She needed to know which systems were necessary for the commbadge to be detected.  Since the backup systems weren't working, she knew that the mechanism that should have activated them automatically when the primary systems were damaged must have been destroyed, so she would have to bypass the primary systems manually.  She pulled out a microfilament and used it to activate the appropriate buttons, and the commbadge chirped and a light came on inside. She grinned and replaced the back of the commbadge.  Finished that, she now turned to Commander Walker. _

"How did you end up in the Delta Quadrant? How long have you been here? Where's your ship?"

He chuckled despite himself. "One question at a time.  We were pulled into the Delta Quadrant by a wormhole on stardate 54281 – I don't know how long ago that was." 

"About six months." 

"Our Captain and many of our crew were killed, and our ship was destroyed after two months.  Our crew was split up, and me and a few others were captured and brought here." 

"There are more of your crew here?" 

"Not any more.  They know how our rank system works with the collar pips and they only kept me and three lieutenants…and a few weeks ago they took them too, and left me here." He stopped and tensed up in the cell as his enhanced mental abilities sensed something. "You'd better get out of here.  There are guards coming this way." 

"When Voyager comes for us, I'll see that they get you too," she told him as she retreated to go back to her cell. 

"Captain…If you get back to your ship without me, will you do something for me?" 

"Of course." 

"Can you try and track down my crew? They're very resourceful and I'm sure some of them survived." 

"I will – but I'd much rather you join us." With that, she went back around the corner and replaced the commbadge on the shelf.  "Chakotay!" she said quietly, but urgently enough to get his attention.  When he turned around, she gestured towards the cell and he ran towards it.  When he was inside, she put her hand on the button to activate the forcefield and stepped inside before she pressed it.  Chakotay had put the chair in the path of the forcefield, but she still felt the skin on her arm blister when the forcefield was activated.  It stung as she pulled it back into the cell.  She gritted her teeth as she moved to the bed and sat down. 

"What is it?" Chakotay asked, concerned when he saw the pain on her face and the black scorch marks on her sleeve. 

"My arm," she grunted.  He helped her remove her jacket, and when it was off he gently rolled up the blackened sleeve of her turtleneck.  She sucked a sharp breath through her teeth as the sleeve moved up her tender skin.  The material slid up her arm to reveal skin underneath that was red, blistered, and burned.

"Next time you can stick your arm through," she said through clenched teeth. 

"Agreed," he said.  He got the water pitcher and dipped a piece of cloth in it and applied it to the burns on her arm.  She sucked in a sharp breath when the wet material contacted the raw flesh. 

"Did it work?" he asked. 

"Hmm?"  Rescue was not the first thing on her mind at the moment – she was still reeling from the shock of coming face to face with another Starfleet officer in such an unlikely place and finding out that there might be yet another Starfleet crew in the Delta quadrant. 

"The commbadge." Chakotay wondered why she hadn't told him immediately if it had worked, and she seemed distracted. 

"Oh…yes, it worked." She turned to him with a smile. "And you're not going to believe who I just met."

*    *    *

Three days later, they had come up with an outline for their plan.  Instead of command codes, they would tell the Vaadwaur how to adapt their transporters to Voyager's shield frequency so that they could transport technology off the ship.  Although this was risky – there was the possibility that they would use it to transport crew off Voyager or board the ship – they had agreed that it was likely that they would only use it to grab the technology.  Since they would only be able to use it once, it was doubtful that they would try to board the ship.  Also, since they would believe that Janeway and Chakotay were cooperating, they wouldn't feel the necessity of grabbing any other crewmembers. 

The Captain had come up with the idea to give the Vaadwaur a flawed defense, and had suggested giving them the shield technology that they had encountered four years ago in the confrontation with the swarm aliens.  If they taught the Vaadwaur to link their ships in the same kind of lattice that would reflect any shot from Voyager, Takken would see it as an advantage.  The crew, however, would recognize it and know that they could cause a chain reaction by firing on one of the ships, neutralizing the technology.  The final idea that they had come up with was Chakotay's – giving them a stardate disguised at what they would claim was a "database access code." 

Chakotay thought that Kathryn should be the one to give them information while he got interrogated, but she thought it would be more believable if he appeared to give in to protect her.  They had been arguing about it since they had begun forming the plan. 

"Kathryn, it's safer if I provoke them and let them beat me up for a while before you give in." 

"They won't believe me," she insisted, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips.  "They've seen that you react when I'm being hurt, so they'll believe it if you give them what they want to protect me."

"But we'll have to let them go pretty far before we give them anything, and I don't want to let you take that kind of abuse." 

"Chakotay, if it works we'll be rescued and neither of us will have to take any more abuse.  I can handle it, and it will be worth it if it gets us back to Voyager.  Besides, if I pretend to be weak already then it will take less before they'll believe you if you cave in." 

He stepped closer to her, invading her personal space.  "Kathryn – how can I let them hurt you like that?  Don't you know how hard that is for me?" 

She closed her eyes. "I can imagine." 

"No, I don't think you can.  If you knew how important you are to me, if you felt what I feel…"

She took a deep breath.  There were many ways she could respond to that, and she waited for the courage to give him an answer that would show him how her outlook had changed since his supposed death.  When she opened her eyes and looked at him, she realized that silence was the only answer he needed.  He could see the emotion in her eyes, and the set of her jaw told him more than her words had over the past seven years.  His lips parted in surprise as he searched her face, but before he could say anything she looked down at the floor and continued in a low voice. 

"I don't want to watch you get hurt anymore than you want to watch me get beat up…but one of us has to do it, and if we want this to work, it has to be me." 

His shoulders slumped in defeat and he nodded. 

They heard footsteps approaching their cell, so she spoke quickly in hushed tones. "Do it, Chakotay.  And no matter _what they do to me, wait as long as possible before you give them anything.  I can handle it – I'm a lot tougher than you think." She sat down against the wall and closed her eyes as if she was unconscious as the guards approached.  She heard the forcefield deactivate and heard Chakotay defending her. _

"Haven't you done enough to her, Takken?  She's barely even conscious and she's useless to you like this." 

"We'll see," he replied and Kathryn felt two guards lift her by her arms.  She remained limp and groaned.  She was dragged by her arms to the interrogation room where she was put in a chair, but her arms were not fastened behind her back in the usual fashion, and they hung limply by her sides.  She cracked her eyes open and saw that Chakotay's arms were being fastened behind him with the usual restraints.  Takken approached her when he saw her staring at him.  

"Ah, you are awake.  Good.  Feeling any more cooperative today?" 

"Go to hell," she responded, and received a punch to the midsection for her trouble, knocking the wind out of her and sending a throbbing pain through her body.. 

"Leave her alone!" 

She hoped that they wouldn't listen to him, and fortunately for their plan they ignored him as usual. 

"You'll never get your filthy hands on my ship," she gasped as she got her breath back.  One of the guards lashed out from the side and she received a blow to the side of her head that caused her vision to blur momentarily. 

"I said leave her alone, Takken!" 

One of the guards punched Chakotay in the stomach to silence him while Takken circled Janeway and then reached out and put his hand around her neck.  He squeezed, and his fingers pushed into the cartilage of her throat, choking her. 

"Give me the command codes," he hissed as he squeezed harder. 

Kathryn answered him in gasps as she struggled to get air into her burning lungs. "You'll. Never. Get. Voyager." 

He released his hand after a moment and she gulped in air as he looked at her in frustration and disgust.  "I was hoping you wouldn't force me to use my little toy again.  It seems it has…_unfortunate side effects after repeated use.  I've lost quite a few valuable prisoners over the last few days."  He stared at her coldly for a few minutes, and she returned the gaze, unmoving.  "It seems that I will have to use more persuasive measures and risk the consequences." He turned to one of the guards. "Fetch the device." _

"No!" yelled Chakotay. "Don't you dare bring that thing near her."  The panic in his voice was real – one of his fears in letting Kathryn take the abuse in their plan was that Takken would use that device on her.  He was even more concerned now after what Takken had just said about its effects on other prisoners – he feared that if he used it on Kathryn again it could be fatal. 

"I won't…if one of you gives me the command codes." 

Chakotay hesitated for appearances and then began their planned script. "What if I gave you access to Voyager's database instead?" 

Janeway followed his lead. "Commander, don't you dare…" She stopped in mid-sentence as Takken turned around and delivered a backhand across her face, knocking her out of her chair and onto the floor.  She felt a trickle of blood run down her cheek, and her head hit the ground when she impacted on the floor, disorienting her. 

Takken looked at her with distaste and turned back to Chakotay. "Go on." 

"I can give you a code so that you can download Voyager's database and learn about our technology…but I'll only give it to you if you leave Captain Janeway alone." 

"Agreed," said Takken.  He motioned for the guards to back away from Janeway on the floor and they did. "Now give it to me." 

"Commander, don't – that's an order," growled Janeway. 

"Silence!  The code!" 

Chakotay looked at Janeway with regret as if he was actually betraying her. "Omega-five-one-three-eight-four-alpha." 

Takken grinned sadistically and then behaved exactly as they had predicted.  "Very good, Commander.  I wish I had learned how to persuade you earlier." He turned around to Janeway who was still laying on the ground and drew back his foot.  He delivered a sharp kick to her already tender midsection, then turned back to Chakotay. "Perhaps you have other information you'd be willing to share?" 

"You said you'd leave her alone!" 

"I lied," said Takken. "If you want her left alone you'll have to keep me occupied in listening to you.  So…where would you like to start? Perhaps some of Voyager's defenses?" 

Chakotay was silent and he looked at Janeway as if deciding whether to talk or not.  Their plan was proceeding perfectly.  He made eye contact with her, and her eyes were still bright, so he remained silent for now as planned and stared at Takken angrily. 

"Very well," said Takken.  He kicked at Janeway again, but this time harder.  She gasped involuntarily as his hard boot came into contact with her side and she felt two of her left ribs snap.  The pain blinded her for a few seconds, and she could hear Chakotay yelling at Takken. 

"All right! Leave her alone.  Take her back to the cell and I'll give you a shield technology that we discovered." 

"Does Voyager use this technology?" he asked suspiciously. 

"No – it needs multiple ships to work and links them together to absorb weapons fire and reflect it."

"Fascinating…I'm listening." 

"Take her back to the cell." 

"She stays here.  Now talk." 

Chakotay let out a deep breath and explained how the lattice of interferometric pulses worked.  One of the engineers that had been brought in conferred with Takken when Chakotay was finished and told him that it would work and would make their fleet not only invincible to weapons fire but they would act like a mirror and reflect whatever was fired at them back at their attackers. 

"Begin implementing it immediately," said Takken. 

"I would sir, but we don't have the technology to emit the kind of pulses he's talking about." 

"Voyager, however, does." He moved around Janeway and stood by her head.  "Shall we continue, Commander?  It appears that we'll have to take Voyager after all." 

"No – take her back to the cell." 

"Why would I do that when you're being so cooperative? Now, give me the command codes." 

Chakotay looked at Kathryn to decide whether or not to give Takken the last piece of information that they planned to feed him.  He could tell that she was in pain, but the look in her eyes as she stared at him told him that she wanted him to hold out longer. He remained silent and stared at Takken. 

"Very well." Takken moved forward and stepped on Kathryn's arm that was laying on the floor.  He ground his foot into it as she gasped in silent agony.  She felt the bone snap in multiple places and the pain was searing.  Everything swam as she became disoriented and had trouble thinking clearly.  Normally, she could handle the pain of a few broken bones, but she was so weak from malnutrition and torture that her body was unable to cope. 

Chakotay went pale as he heard the snap of her arm.  Refusing to wait any longer, he gave Takken the last red herring. 

"Stop it! I'll tell you how you can get the technology – but not Voyager.  I can show you how to modify your transporters to our shield harmonics so they can be penetrated, but you'll only be able to use it once before they catch on." 

Takken nodded to the engineer, who approached Chakotay with what looked like a PADD. Chakotay's arms were unshackled and he entered a few commands into the device that would allow the Vaadwaur to transport through Voyager's shields.  When the engineer confirmed that it seemed to be a valid idea, Takken was finally satisfied.  "Take them back to the cell.  And set a course for Voyager."

*    *    *

The pain in Kathryn's arm had subsided a little after a while and she was able to think clearly again.  Chakotay had related all of the conversation that she had missed in her half-unconscious state, and she had nearly cried when he had told her that Takken had ordered a course set for Voyager. 

"We're lucky that he was satisfied with what we gave him.  For a minute there I thought he was going to start in on you again and I had no more fake information to give him." 

"That's because you folded too soon," she slurred.  She was laying on the bed with her broken right arm at her side, and Chakotay was sitting on the edge of the bed near her waist tending to the cuts on her face.  When she answered him, he stopped what he was doing and leaned closer to her. 

"Kathryn – he broke your arm and probably gave you a concussion." 

"Not to mention I think he broke a couple of ribs," she groaned. "But I've had worse." 

He frowned – she hadn't mentioned the broken ribs before, but she hadn't been complaining.  She had even refused to admit that her arm was broken until he told her that he had heard the bone snap.  

"Where?"

"My left side." 

"Let me have a look." 

He finished cleaning the worst cuts on her face and put the water aside.  He reached down and gently cupped his hand around her side, moving up from her waist and probing gently with his fingers.  When he was about halfway up her side, she tensed and sucked in a sharp breath. "There," she said through clenched teeth. 

He reached down to her waist where her shirt was tucked into her trousers, but then stopped.  "I should probably take a look," he said tentatively.  She looked at him for a second, then nodded.  He gently pulled on her shirt and the tank top underneath it until they came untucked from her waist, and slid them up her abdomen until the clothing was above the tender area that he had touched before.  He could see where the ribs were broken because the internal bleeding had created a nasty looking black and blue area on her side.  He pushed the shirts up a little higher so that they covered her to just below her chest and gently probed the bruised area with his fingers.  He could tell from her flinching as he touched them that there were at least two ribs broken, and he thought that a third one above them was cracked. 

Kathryn's breathing was accelerated and she stared up at the ceiling trying to ignore Chakotay's hands running over her exposed midsection.  Her heavy breathing did nothing to help her discomfort, because a stabbing pain shot through her every time she took a breath.  The pain was actually a blessing, however, because otherwise she would have been paying far too much attention to his hands running intimately over her body. 

"What's the verdict?" she asked to try and keep herself distracted. 

"Two broken, maybe three.  I don't know what to do about it.  Do you remember any of your medical history classes to know what they used to do for broken ribs?" 

She tried to concentrate, but it was difficult since his warm hands were still resting on her bare skin.

"Uh…I think that they used to…bind them…we should wrap something tightly around my torso."

He looked around for something to use, but she stopped him.  "Help me get this turtleneck off," she said.  "I can wear the tank top and my jacket, and we can tear the shirt up and use the material." 

He undid the front of the shirt and pulled one sleeve off her uninjured arm before slowly working the other sleeve off of the broken arm.  She ground her teeth as he pulled the tight material over her shattered bone but was silent.  With some effort, he tore the shirt into strips that when tied together would go around her three or four times.  He helped her into a partial sitting position so that he could get the material underneath her and wrapped it as tightly as he could around her where the ribs were broken.  He tied it tight and pulled the bottom of her tank top down to her waist again. 

"Now," he said, helping her to lay back down. "Let's see what we can do for this arm of yours, shall we?"  He felt gently along the length of her arm, and could tell by her descriptions that it was broken in two places that he could tell of.  He told her that he would have to try, and set it, so she nodded gamely and steeled herself while he tried to set the bone back into place.

*    *    *

The sharp pain from her arm and broken ribs was the first thing that penetrated Kathryn's conscious mind.  As with every morning, the first thing that she realized as soon as she was able to ignore the pain was that they still hadn't been rescued.  After three days, there was still no sign that the Vaadwaur had confronted Voyager.    This morning, though, her disappointment at this was quickly followed by the realization that she could hear voices.  She panicked for a second, thinking that Takken was back, but calmed down when she realized that the conversation was hushed and subdued.  They must have noticed her coming around, because the voices stopped and she heard Chakotay approach her. 

"Kathryn?"  

She opened her eyes and groaned as she shifted and her broken ribs sent a stabbing pain across her side.   "Anything?" 

He shook his head.  "No," he told her, but then he smiled. "There's someone here who's anxious to talk to you." When she looked puzzled, his smile widened.  "He said something about you two knowing each other."  He moved aside and another face came into her field of vision. 

"Commander Walker," she said, surprised. "How did you get in here?" 

"They captured a bunch of…Turei, did you say, Chakotay?…and so they moved me in here to keep all the 'Federations' away from the other species.  How are you feeling?" 

"Sore," she muttered, gingerly trying to sit up while moving her arm as little as possible. 

"Well, I understand that we're following Voyager as we speak.  If your crew is half as resourceful as they were rumored to be back home, Captain, I'm sure you'll be fixed up and showing me around your ship in no time." 

"I certainly hope so, Commander." 

Chakotay interjected. "I hardly think this is any place for formalities.  Mark, I'd like you to meet Kathryn. Kathryn, this is Mark." 

She grinned and would have shaken his hand if she could have moved her arm.  "Pleased to meet you, Mark." 

"Likewise, Kathryn." 

"Now that we've dispensed with the pleasantries," she said. "I'm dying of curiosity.  How did the Yukon end up in the Delta quadrant? It's a science vessel, if I remember correctly." 

"Orion-class," he confirmed.  "We were charting a newly discovered wormhole that wasn't like anything on record, with unusual subspace readings.  We couldn't believe it when the telemetry showed that it led to the Delta quadrant and was less than five hundred light-years from your last known position.  We were all thrilled that we might have found a way to get Voyager home, especially Captain Solis – I think he knew you?" 

"Solis?" she repeated. "Yes, we served together on the Al-Batani." 

"He mentioned you a few times.  He said that if anyone could get a crew home from the other side of the galaxy, it was you. Anyways, we sent a probe through to confirm the location of the other end before we informed Starfleet Command, but the probe destabilized something in the wormhole and it started draining power from all over the ship.  We lost thrusters and impulse, so we tried to jump to warp, but our warp field acted like a magnet to the wormhole and we were pulled in.  The Yukon completely destabilized the wormhole and it collapsed as we passed through it.  When we came out the other end, a third of the crew were dead, and our warp field was permanently collapsed." 

"I thought it was bad enough being stuck halfway across the galaxy, but without warp…I can't imagine." 

"Yes, but you were alone out here.  We knew that Voyager was out there somewhere and that you were in contact with Starfleet.  We had some limited information on the technology they were using for communication, and once we were sure that the warp drive was gone we worked on implementing it on the Yukon." 

 "I guess it didn't work or they would have sent us to look for you," said Chakotay. 

"No – we were getting close to being able to send a compressed data stream when we were attacked by the Vaadwaur after we had been here about two months.  Captain Solis and a number of the crew were killed in the initial attack, and we were able to hold them off while we got all the non-essential personnel and our families into escape pods and shuttles, but then our shields went down for good and the hull started to buckle.  We set the self-destruct sequence and abandoned ship.  I think that most of us made it off the ship, but the escape pod that I was in with three of my lieutenants was captured and we were brought here.  The Vaadwaur claimed that they had destroyed all the other shuttles and escape pods, but I don't know if it's true or not." 

"How many of you were there?" 

"Our crew complement was 95, but we lost over 30 people coming through the wormhole and another 20 in the attack.  If all the pods made it, there would have been between 40 and 50 of us left."

"That must have been awful for you," said the Captain.  She could certainly empathize with losing crew members, although thankfully Voyager had never endured losses of that magnitude. 

He nodded. "Not only were their lives my responsibility since I was in command, but my daughter was on board and I had no idea where she was as the ship was exploding around me." 

"You have a daughter?" 

He smiled sadly. "Cassandra – she's twelve years old.  I don't know what happened to her.  I never saw her after I ordered the crew to abandon ship.  My escape pod was captured almost immediately, and I didn't have a chance to contact anyone else to know how many people made it off the ship." 

Kathryn looked at him with determination in her eyes.  "When we get back to Voyager, I promise you I will do everything in my power to find them."

*    *    *

_Acting Captain's log, Stardate 54835.5  After four days, we have completed our transactions at the Ledosian spaceport and have resumed course.  We were able to sufficiently re-supply the ship and will be able to go many weeks without stopping if necessary._

The bridge was quiet, as usual.  Tom had never been particularly thankful for the Captain and Chakotay allowing small talk on the bridge until Tuvok had taken command.  His style of command was quite different from Captain Janeway or Commander Chakotay.  Where they had been light-hearted and easy going, Tuvok was stern and serious.  For some reason, nobody felt like chatting when Tuvok was in the big chair and the bridge was almost always quiet now, the silence broken only by the beeping of consoles.  The crew was still upset over the loss of their commanding officers, and the gloomy silence on the bridge did nothing to help morale. 

Tom was sitting in Chakotay's old chair on Tuvok's left, and he shifted uneasily.  He still wasn't used to the chair – it was disorienting being this far back on the bridge all the time, and he didn't like not having the controls at his fingertips. 

The silence was finally broken by Harry at Ops. "Commander, I'm picking up three ships on an intercept course." 

"Distance?" 

"Twenty million kilometers and closing…wait, there's more of them…I'm reading five…six…nine ships.  They're Vaadwaur." 

"Shields up," said Tom. "Evasive maneuvers."  He wished that he was at the helm, but forced himself to stay in his seat. 

"Scan for any gravimetric distortions.  There may be a subspace tunnel nearby," Tuvok told Seven.

Seven shook her head as her hands flew over the console in front of her. "I am not reading any on long range sensors.  If they came out of a subspace tunnel it is outside of our sensor range." 

"They're matching our course," said Ensign Culhane at the conn. "We may not be able to avoid them." 

"Hail them, Mr. Kim." 

"No response." 

"Power weapons," said Tuvok. "Red Alert.  All hands to battle stations." 

Two Vaadwaur ships drew apart from the others and began firing on them while the other ships remained farther back . 

"Return fire."

Kathryn, Mark and Chakotay were sitting talking quietly in the cell.  Kathryn was sitting on the bed with her legs stretched out along it and her back leaning against the wall, and Chakotay sat in a similar position on the floor beside her.  Mark was on the floor opposite Chakotay, facing Kathryn.  The two men were trying to figure out where the Yukon had come out of the wormhole in relation to Voyager's position.  So far, all they had determined was that they had not encountered any common species or stellar phenomena, but since the Yukon had been without warp and had only used shuttles to get supplies, they hadn't explored very far. 

Kathryn wasn't paying very much attention to their conversation.  Her arm and ribs hurt, and she was pretty sure she had a concussion.  She had a awful headache and began massaging her temple with her hand to try and make it go away.  Mark noticed her rubbing her head and frowned. 

"Kathryn, are you all right?" he asked. Chakotay turned to look at her as well.  She looked at them both with surprise. 

"I'm fine," she said. "I've just got a splitting headache." 

"No wonder," said Mark.  "I hear you took quite a beating.  Maybe you should lay down for a while."

She glared at Chakotay, who smiled. "I see he's already under your influence," she growled. 

He was about to retort when the ship shook. 

"What was that?" she said, then all three looked at each other in realization: Voyager.

"Shields are holding," reported Harry. 

The Vaadwaur appeared to be no match for Voyager and the crew was confident that they could fight them off, but then something strange happened.  Harry looked at his console in amazement. 

"Commander, I'm reading a series of simultaneous transports all over the ship." 

"With the shields up?" asked Tom in disbelief. "How did they manage that?" 

"It looks like they adapted their transporter to our shields." 

"Reverse the harmonics and rotate the shield frequency," ordered Tuvok.  "Can you determine what was taken?" 

"Equipment, mostly…I'm getting reports from all decks.  It's all on one of the two attacking ships.  I've got it on sensors." 

"They're backing off," said Tom in surprise as the two ships that had been firing on them retreated.

"They are joining with the other ships," observed Tuvok. 

"Our shield strength is dropping!" yelled Lieutenant Ayala at Tactical. "The ships are producing some kind of field that's neutralizing our shields – they're at 30 percent." 

The Vaadwaur were still firing at them and the bridge began to shake. "Target the weapons array of the lead ship." 

Voyager's forward phaser array powered up and they fired at the lead ship.  Instead of damage to the other ship, the energy came back at Voyager, causing the bridge to shake violently. 

"Hold your fire!" Tom shouted before he looked at his console in disbelief. "Hey Harry, does this remind you of anything?" 

"No…wait a minute – it's a lattice. The alien swarm! If we – " He was interrupted as Seven noticed something at her station. 

"They are attempting to access Voyager's database." 

"Can you stop them?" asked Tuvok. 

"I do not have to.  They are not attempting to bypass our security measures – they are transmitting what appears to be some kind of  invalid access code." 

"Lieutenant, reverse the shield polarity and fire on one of the ships to disrupt the pulses."

"It certainly feels like we're being fired at," said Kathryn. 

"That doesn't mean that it's Voyager, though," pointed out Chakotay, trying to keep them all from getting their hopes up. 

"I know," she replied, "but – " 

Mark interrupted her. "It's Voyager, all right." Kathryn and Chakotay looked at him as he slowly grinned. "I can hear them." 

"Are they all right?" asked the Captain. 

"They're being fired at…but I think they're okay.  They're confused…" He looked up at her with an even bigger smile. "And they miss you." 

"You can feel that?" 

"It's very strong," he said. He concentrated for a moment, then laughed out loud. "Someone doesn't like your chair, Chakotay." 

"Who would that be?" he wondered. 

"Tom!" exclaimed Kathryn with a laugh. "He'll go insane if he's not at the helm." 

They all stopped laughing as the ship began to shake violently.  Kathryn was thrown off the bed and cried out as she landed on Chakotay, injuring her broken arm.  Sparks flew in the hallway as things began exploding and the lights in the corridor flickered. 

"Are you okay?" Chakotay asked her as he helped her sit up. 

She nodded as she ground her teeth against the searing pain in her arm. "I think Voyager's fighting back." 

"The pulses have been disrupted, Commander," reported Ensign Kim. "Their shields are down and they took some heavy damage." 

"Let's get our stuff back," said Tom. "Seven?" 

"I am scanning for all equipment with a Starfleet signature."

Mark yelled at his two companions when he saw the blue shimmer in the hallway.  They moved towards him and looked in the direction that he was pointing just in time to see the transporter beam fade away on the shelf where the commbadge had been sitting.  Chakotay smiled and squeezed Kathryn's shoulder.  She smiled back at him.  It was only a matter of time now.

Seven looked up from her station.  "I have beamed the stolen equipment to the cargo bay."

Tuvok ordered the helm to get them out of there, and they all relaxed a little as Voyager jumped to warp.  Tom turned around to look at Harry and Seven.  "What was that all about?"

*    *    *

The senior staff was gathered in the conference room trying to make sense of the Vaadwaur attack. 

"Where do you think they got that interferen…interferomet…that shield neutralizing technology?" asked Neelix. 

"Most likely in the same place that Voyager encountered it," said Seven. "Their subspace tunnels may allow them to travel that far and they could have assimilated the technology themselves." 

"I still don't get why they're attacking us for no reason," said Harry. 

"This is the second time they have attacked us without apparent provocation," said Tuvok.  "There may indeed be a motive behind their actions of which we are unaware." 

"Maybe we should find out what their motive is so it doesn't happen again," suggested B'Elanna.

"I am more concerned that they were able to transport through our shields.  They obviously had detailed information of our shield harmonics," replied Tuvok. 

"I hate to say this," said Tom. "but we've been in this situation before…with Seska and the Kazon."

They were all silent for a moment before Tuvok responded. "Are you suggesting that there is a traitor on board?" 

"I'm not suggesting anything…I'm just saying that they're getting a heck of a lot of information, and it has to be coming from somewhere." 

"Not all their information was accurate," pointed out Seven. "If they had known Voyager's shield frequency they could have adapted their weapons to penetrate the shields instead of their transporters.  Also, they mistakenly believed that they had the means to access our database." 

"Besides, I can't believe that someone on the crew would betray us after this long," said B'Elanna.

"She's right," added Harry. "At the beginning, that was one thing…but now? I just don't see it."

"Nevertheless," said Tuvok. "We must consider every possibility.  Ensign Kim, I want you to go over the communication logs and look for any sign that a member of the crew has been in contact with the Vaadwaur. Seven, you can assist Lieutenant Torres with the inventory of the stolen equipment, and I would also like you to analyze the data from the attack to see if we can find any logic in their actions. Dismissed."

*    *    *

B'Elanna and Seven walked around the retrieved equipment in the cargo bay, identifying it and directing it to the proper location.  It was surprising how much equipment they had taken in one transport.

"That goes back to engineering, level two," ordered B'Elanna, pointing. "And that goes to Astrometrics, but see that it gets repaired first." She was letting others do most of the work. At more that two-thirds of the way through her pregnancy, moving around was getting more difficult and although she maintained that she was still perfectly fit for duty, she let others do the grunt work while she supervised.

B'Elanna walked around the clutter in the cargo bay and made her way towards Seven.  She and the ex-drone were getting along better now, thanks in part to Tom.  He had pointed out that Seven was probably just as upset over the Captain's death as the rest of the crew – maybe even more so since the Captain had helped her recover her individuality – but that she probably didn't know how to deal with it.  B'Elanna and Tom had gotten together with her at Sandrine's a couple of times to talk about the Captain and B'Elanna had begun to suspect that Tom was right, which had softened her attitude towards Seven considerably. 

"It looks like most of this stuff was undamaged," she said as she moved closer to Seven. "But I wonder why they wanted it." She stopped as a new item caught her attention on the floor.  She knelt down and picked it up. 

"Lieutenant?" said Seven. 

"Looks like somebody lost a commbadge," she commented. 

"There has been no report of a missing commbadge," said Seven, checking the PADD in her hands.

"They probably just haven't missed it yet.  Computer, identify this commbadge," she said as she hit it.

_Unable to comply._

"Hmm…" she said as she opened the back. "No wonder.  The circuitry in this thing is toast." She tossed it in her hand. "I'll figure out who it belongs to later – right now we should get started on making sense of their attack." 

"I can finish here if you wish to begin without me," offered Seven. 

"Thanks – I'll be in my quarters going over the data."

B'Elanna leaned back in her chair at the desk in her quarters.  She and Seven had been going over the attack for hours trying to figure out what was going on.  It was obvious that the Vaadwaur had access to information about Voyager since they had been able to transport through the shields.  She and Seven had also determined that some of the equipment stolen had been used to create the interferometric pulses, which meant that the Vaadwaur had come looking specifically for that piece of equipment and knew exactly what to do with it.  On the other hand, none of the information that they had found, or been given, had left Voyager vulnerable. 

B'Elanna drummed her fingers on the desk while Seven worked opposite her.  Seven looked sideways at B'Elanna's hand as she drummed, and B'Elanna caught the glance. 

"Sorry," she said, holding her hand still. "I'm just frustrated." She leaned forward and called up something on her computer screen. "Let's have another look at their attempt to access the database.  They were obviously misinformed about that." 

"They appeared to believe that they possessed an access code," agreed Seven.  She called it up on her PADD and shoved it across the desk to B'Elanna. "Yet it is not in the format of a Starfleet access code."

"Omega-five-one-three-eight-four-alpha," she read. "You're right – there's too many numbers. No access codes have five digits…" She trailed off as something occurred to her. "Unless…"

"Lieutenant?" 

"Except for the Greek letters, it looks like a stardate," she said. "Computer, display ship's logs from stardate 51384."  The computer beeped at her and as she looked at her screen her eyes widened. 

"What is it?" asked Seven. 

"This has _got to be more than a coincidence.  On stardate 51384, we were in pursuit of a bunch of thieves…who had transported equipment off of Voyager." _

"We tracked them to a nearby planet and retrieved the equipment," recalled Seven. "That does seem unusual." 

They were interrupted by a chime at the door. "Come in," called B'Elanna, and the doors opened to admit Naomi Wildman. 

"Naomi Wildman," said Seven. "State your purpose here." 

"I was looking for you," she said brightly, walking over to the desk. "The computer told me that you were here.  You said that you'd show me how to recalibrate the sensors in Astrometrics so I can be your assistant." 

Naomi had always aspired to be the Captain's assistant, but had wisely decided not to pursue any such thing with Captain Tuvok.  Instead, she had convinced Seven to let her become her assistant in Astrometrics. 

"I am assisting Lieutenant Torres," Seven told her. "We will reschedule." 

Naomi's face fell, but her curiosity overcame her disappointment and she walked around the desk to stand beside B'Elanna. "What are you working on?" 

"We're trying to figure out why we were attacked yesterday," explained B'Elanna. "The Vaadwaur knew things about Voyager and tried to access our database." 

"Did it work?" 

"No – they tried to enter an access code but it wasn't an access code." She showed her the sequence. "Seven and I think that it might be a code, like a stardate." 

Naomi perked up when she saw the sequence, seeing a chance to contribute. She pointed to the word 'alpha' on the screen. "That's in _my access code," she said proudly. "'Naomi Wildman Alpha One Four.' It's the first letter in the Greek alphabet." _

"Very good," said B'Elanna. "Now, I think I've got this under control, so why don't you and Seven go ahead to Astrometrics." 

Naomi broke into a huge smile. "Come on, Seven." 

"Are you certain that you do not require my assistance?" 

When B'Elanna reassured her that she would be fine, Seven and Naomi left together. 

B'Elanna sighed and stretched in the chair.  She was about to get back to work when Tom came in the door. 

"Are you still working?" he asked. "You really should take a break – how about joining me for dinner in the mess hall?" 

She protested at first, but eventually gave in and decided to start again later.


	5. The Discovery

DISCLAIMER: You all know the drill - Paramount is God. All hail Paramount. They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just   
using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go. All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish).

SUMMARY: On Voyager, B'Elanna discovers that the events surrounding the deaths of their commanding officers are not all they seem to be.

THE LONG ROAD HOME

SEPARATIONS

CHAPTER FIVE : THE DISCOVERY

Three more days of going over the same information had not yielded any answers.  The mysterious access code had them all stumped, although the entire senior staff agreed that it seemed to be more that just a coincidence.  If the Vaadwaur didn't know that it was a stardate, then who had given it to them, and why?  Someone had suggested that they had transmitted the stardate because they knew about the previous theft of equipment and were bragging that they were doing it as well – but then why include the Greek letters?  Not only that, but it seemed unlikely that the Vaadwaur would know about an incident that occurred three years ago and tens of thousands of light-years away. 

_Then again, this could all be one huge coincidence, thought B'Elanna. _

She was sitting in her quarters staring at the computer screen, hoping that something would come to her.  Frustrated, she hit the screen with her hand and looked around the desk.  Her eyes fell on the commbadge that she had found in the shuttle bay. 

_Yet another mystery, she thought. _

She hadn't yet gotten around to analyzing the commbadge to identify its owner, and no one had yet reported it missing.  She looked again at the access code on the screen.  Her mind wandered, and she remembered Naomi's comment about the Greek letters. 

"The first letter of the Greek alphabet," she exclaimed suddenly, sitting up in her chair.  Alpha was the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and omega was the last letter of the Greek alphabet.  The access code, though, _started with omega and __ended with alpha. _

"What if it's backwards?" she muttered to herself. "Computer, display the reverse of this sequence."

A new sequence appeared on the screen: Alpha 4 8 3 1 5 Omega. 

B'Elanna repeated the numbers to herself a few times before it hit her why they were so familiar.

"The date Voyager got stuck in the Delta quadrant," she whispered with awe. 

That _had to mean something.  The stardate they found reading the sequence forwards could have been dismissed as a coincidence, but this…this was definitely a message.  It had even been disguised as a code, being backwards and all.  She again noticed the commbadge.  Reaching for a tool on her desk, she grabbed the commbadge and flipped the back off. She had noticed the damaged primary circuits before, but now she could see that the backup systems were functional.  That explained why they had been able to transport it back, she thought.  Removing the top part of the circuitry, she began poking around underneath, looking for the identification chip.  Tom had called it "the black box of the commbadge" and although she didn't understand the reference at first – he said it had something to do with twentieth-century aviation – he had explained it and she had agreed that it was an appropriate comparison.  The identification chip was designed to be virtually indestructible, and it was intended so that Starfleet could identify otherwise unrecognizable bodies.  It was separate from the rest of the commbadge systems, so it hadn't been damaged by whatever had overloaded the primary systems.  She took the tool and pressed the appropriate buttons to activate it.  She nearly dropped the commbadge when she heard the voice that came out of it. _

_Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager._

"That's not possible," she gasped.  "Computer, confirm the following voice pattern." She activated the chip again and the message was repeated. 

_Captain Kathryn Janeway, replied the computer. _

"Compare with voice print on file." 

_There is a 99.947 percent match._

B'Elanna's mind was racing now.  How had the Vaadwaur gotten a hold of Captain Janeway's commbadge?  She had been completely vaporized by the plasma grenade – hadn't she?  If her commbadge had somehow survived the explosion…

B'Elanna didn't finish the thought before she jumped to her feet and ran to the door as fast as her advanced pregnancy would allow her. 

"Computer, are the holodecks occupied?" she asked. 

_Holodeck one is occupied by Lieutenant Baxter.  Holodeck two is occupied by the EMH._

B'Elanna arrived outside holodeck two and entered.  She found herself on a golf course and saw the Doctor teeing off. 

"Doctor!" she called and walked quickly over to him. He stopped mid-swing and turned to her.

"Lieutenant. What can I do for you?" 

She called up a control panel and began entering commands. "I need the holodeck." 

"Can't it wait? I'm in the middle of a game," he protested. 

"No, it can't." She saw him open his mouth to protest and stopped him. "Doctor, believe me when I tell you that this is of the utmost importance. Lives could be at stake here.  Time is of the essence and I need to run a simulation _now." _

He was surprised, but gave in. "Very well.  If it's that important.  Computer, transfer the EMH to sickbay." 

Before he was even gone, B'Elanna was punching in commands to the computer. 

"Computer, end program." 

The golf course disappeared and she was standing in the empty holodeck. "Engage privacy lock.  Authorization Torres omega 593." The computer acknowledged and she continued working.  She pulled up the sensor and tricorder readings from the away mission six weeks ago. 

"Computer, using this sensor data, recreate the setting." The computer worked for a minute before the holodeck shimmered.  When she looked around, she found herself in the canyon where they had been ambushed.  She shivered involuntarily and continued working. 

"Using the holographic templates on file, put the members of the away team in the following positions."  She entered into the computer what she could remember about the relative positions of the away team. When she turned around, she could see herself and the rest of the away team as they had been about halfway through the ambush.  She and Seven were crouched behind a rock, Ensign Ashmore was taking cover behind some of their equipment, and she could see Nicoletti and Yosa laying not too far off.  She walked towards the holograms of Tom and the Captain.  They were standing back to back and had their phasers raised, as she had last seen them.  She circled them slowly while she thought.  If she could come up with a simulation where the Captain survived, she could probably convince Tuvok to go after the Vaadwaur. 

"Computer," she said, entering commands on a PADD, "Remove Paris and Janeway and recreate the crater using data from the tricorder readings taken after the attack." 

The images of the Captain and Tom faded away and were replaced by the crater caused by the plasma grenade. 

"Superimpose the initial positions of Paris and Janeway." Their images appeared, suspended above the shallow crater. "Use the size of the impact crater and the yield of the grenade to extrapolate the point of detonation," she ordered. 

_Unable to comply._

She frowned. "Explain." 

_Insufficient data to extrapolate a limited number of possibilities._

That made sense – the computer could come up with a radius from the center of the crater, but not a precise position.  She punched more commands on the PADD. "Take into account the positions of the Vaadwaur and probable trajectories." 

_Analysis complete.__  Two possibilities found._

To B'Elanna's surprise, two small images of a plasma grenade appeared not on the ground in front of Tom and the Captain, but in the air five meters away from them, suspended in midair.  B'Elanna whistled.  One of them was between Tom and the northern cliff, and the other image was between the Captain and the western cliff. 

"Torres to Seven of Nine." 

_Go ahead, Lieutenant._

"Are you busy?  I could use your help in the holodeck." 

_Icheb and I are upgrading the sensors in Astrometrics.  The upgrade will be complete in seventeen minutes._

"I can wait until you're done.  Come to holodeck two when you're finished."

When Seven entered the holodeck twenty minutes later, she was surprised at her surroundings.

"You have recreated the away mission where the Captain was killed." 

"I've recreated the away mission where we _thought the Captain was killed," said B'Elanna as she walked over to Seven. _

"Clarify," said Seven, puzzled. 

"Look at this." She pulled the commbadge out of her pocket and flipped the back off. 

"The unidentified commbadge from the Vaadwaur attack," guessed Seven. 

"It's not unidentified anymore." B'Elanna pulled a small tool out of her other pocket and activated the identification chip. 

_Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager, said the Captain's voice._

Seven's eyebrow went up.  "The Captain's commbadge.  You believe she may have survived the ambush." 

B'Elanna nodded. "Computer, display the away team in position Torres one." The canyon had been bare, but now the away team appeared as they had when B'Elanna had first started the simulation. "Display the two possible points of detonation for the plasma grenade that were extrapolated." 

Seven's eyes widened when she saw where the grenades appeared.  "The grenade did not impact on the ground." 

"We just assumed that it exploded when it hit the ground, but the crater's not big enough given the yield of the grenades.  It looks like somebody, probably the Captain, detonated it in midair." 

"To destroy it before it hit the ground," finished Seven.  She looked thoughtfully at the simulation and then pointed at the grenade that was suspended above Tom. "However, the extrapolation is flawed.  The grenade could not have been thrown from the northern cliff." 

"Why not?" 

"Because Lieutenant Paris claimed that the explosion came from _behind him, knocking him to the ground.  He did not see the grenade explode.  Also, we found him on the north side of the crater, which would support his claim." _

B'Elanna realized that she had a point and deleted the second grenade. "So then we know that it was thrown from the western cliff and where it detonated.  But we've still got a problem.  Computer, using the point of detonation, extrapolate the effect of the grenade and calculate the final positions of Paris and Janeway if they were standing in their current position when the grenade went off." The figures disappeared and were replaced by the now familiar crater.  Tom was now laying in about the same position as when they found him, but there was no sign of the Captain. 

"Computer, show the final position of Captain Janeway," asked Seven.  She could tell by the look on B'Elanna's face that she already knew the answer. 

_Unable to comply._

"Elaborate." 

_Captain Janeway would have been vaporized by the plasma explosion._

"Computer, reset the simulation to the instant of detonation," said B'Elanna.  The crater disappeared and was replaced by Captain Janeway and Tom again. 

"I've run this at least a dozen times," sighed B'Elanna. "And every time I come to the same conclusion.  If the Captain detonated the grenade from this position, she gets vaporized.  There has to be something I'm missing," she said, fingering the commbadge. 

"Perhaps we have mistaken the Captain's position," suggested Seven. 

"No, I don't think so.  Tom said that she was right behind him seconds before the explosion." She walked over and stood beside the hologram of the Captain, staring at the plasma grenade in the air above her. She sighed and closed her eyes.  When she opened them again, realization dawned as she looked at the menacing form of the grenade suspended in the air in front of her. 

"She needed a good shot," she said quietly. 

"Lieutenant?" 

"She needed to get a good shot to be able to detonate it before it hit the ground.  Instinctively, she might have taken a few steps back to get a better shot." She demonstrated, taking two steps back as she lifted up her arm as if to fire. 

Seven adjusted the simulation. "Computer, move Janeway one point two meters backwards." The hologram reappeared beside B'Elanna, who now moved over to where Seven stood. "Show the effect of the detonation," ordered Seven. 

Once again, Tom and the Captain were replaced by the crater and Tom was laying on the ground.  When they didn't see the Captain, B'Elanna sighed. 

"Computer, show the final position of Captain Janeway," ordered Seven. 

_Position shown._

They looked at each other in surprise and then looked around.  "The cliff!" exclaimed B'Elanna, and they ran over to the edge of the small cliff that divided the floor of the canyon.  The hologram of Captain Janeway was laying about three meters from the base of the cliff. 

"Computer, list the probable injuries that Captain Janeway would have sustained," asked Seven.

_Second-degree burns, concussion, lacerations, internal bleeding._

"Probability that she would have survived without immediate medical attention?" 

_Ninety two percent._

They moved down to where she was laying and looked around. "I don't get it," said B'Elanna. "We went all over this area and she wasn't here." 

Seven wasn't paying attention as she looked at the small cliff.  "This simulation is not accurate – the face of this cliff appeared different.  Computer, access geological sensor database in Astrometrics and update this simulation." 

The image shimmered and a small cave appeared in the cliff.  Their jaws dropped and they stood for a moment in silence before B'Elanna spoke. 

"That wasn't there before." 

"No," agreed Seven. "but the geological sensors are configured differently from other sensors.  They may have picked up what our tricorders and normal sensors were unable to." 

"If the Vaadwaur were hiding in there," said B'Elanna, grasping the full implication of their discovery, "They could have grabbed the Captain before we looked down here and we wouldn't have had a clue."  She hit her commbadge. "Lieutenant Torres to all senior staff.  Report to holodeck two immediately."

*    *    *

"Fascinating," said Tuvok when they had finished the simulation.  "But it is merely speculation.  I as much as anyone would like to believe that Captain Janeway is alive, but you have not provided us with any proof convincing enough to warrant a confrontation with the Vaadwaur." 

"You don't think this is proof enough?" exclaimed Tom angrily. "If there's even a chance she survived we have to go after her." 

"A noble sentiment, Lieutenant.  But Captain Janeway would be the first to tell you that it would be illogical to risk the entire ship based on circumstantial evidence." 

B'Elanna was about to interject, but Harry got there first. "Yeah, but there's a _lot of circumstantial evidence.  Not only what B'Elanna and Seven have found, but the attack the other day.  It all makes sense if the Vaadwaur had the Captain.  Think about it – someone gave them information that was mostly inaccurate, and any good information that they did have wasn't anything that would have put us in danger.  Plus there's the stardate – that certainly sounds like something the Captain would think of to get our attention." _

"That is a logical explanation of the behavior of the Vaadwaur," conceded Tuvok. "But I would prefer if we had concrete proof – "

B'Elanna interrupted him: "We _have proof." All heads turned towards her. "You just didn't give us a chance to get to it." With that, she pulled out her trump card – the commbadge. She quickly flipped the back off and activated the appropriate buttons, and the Captain's voice rang out in the holodeck._

_Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager._

"We retrieved this commbadge from the Vaadwaur ship when we transported our equipment back to Voyager.  I ran a microscopic analysis and found recent traces of the Captain's DNA on it.  How much more proof do you want?" 

Tuvok nodded. "Ensign Kim, begin scanning for the warp trail of the ship we encountered that had our stolen equipment.  When you locate it, set a course at maximum warp." 

"Yes, sir." The entire staff snapped into action and exited the holodeck.

*    *    *

Commander Takken was pacing back and forth on his bridge.  He had been furious when the attack of Voyager had failed after it had seemed to be going so well. The transport and the interferometric technology had worked, but then things had quickly unraveled.  They had been unable to access the database, Voyager had severely damaged their vessels and then they had taken back their technology.  The High Command automatically assumed that the failure had been his fault, and they were sending one of his superiors to his ship to assess the situation and to decide what to do with the prisoners.  He would have liked to have his way with them in the interrogation chamber, but the High Command had told him specifically to leave them alone until High Commander Gaul arrived. 

He heard footsteps in the corridor, and two guards came in, followed by Gaul. 

"You said that we would get Voyager, Takken." 

"We almost had them.  If…"

"I don't want to hear excuses.  I'm here to take some of your prisoners of your hands.  Leave Voyager's second in command here, but Janeway is to be taken to the prison colony on Matura IV.  Continue interrogating him, but it is no longer our first priority since they are uncooperative and deceptive.  The High Command is currently looking into other potential sources of advanced technology." 

"Yes, sir," replied Takken. 

"See that Janeway and any other Federations that you still have are on my ship within the hour," he ordered before he turned and left.

*    *    *

The three prisoners were trying to keep their minds occupied.  They tried not to think about how long it had been since Voyager had retrieved the commbadge, and they definitely tried not to think about what Takken would do to them when he finally showed his face.  They were taking turns picking something to talk about.  For her turn, Kathryn had asked Mark about his daughter. 

"She was so excited when we found the wormhole," he was saying. "She wrote a report on you and Voyager for her class on deep-space exploration.  When we told her that we might be able to get Voyager home, the first thing she wanted to know was if she could meet you and your crew." 

Kathryn laughed.  "Well, I certainly hope that she gets the chance." 

Mark became sober. "Me too.  I just wish I knew what had happened to her…I couldn't sense her when we abandoned ship, but…I can't give up hope completely.  I should have left her with her grandparents, but ever since her mother died I've never left her behind on a mission.  I wish that I had this time." 

They stopped talking when they heard footsteps approaching the cell.  They all stiffened and Chakotay grabbed Kathryn's arm protectively.  Four guards appeared at the entrance to the cell, but Takken was not with them, and this was unusual.  One of the guards deactivated the forcefield and they entered the cell.  Two of them grabbed Mark by the arms and dragged him into a standing position. 

"What do you want?" he asked, but they remained silent and started to pull them out of the cell.  The other two guards moved towards Kathryn and grabbed her as well.  One of the guards grabbed her arm where it was broken and twisted it as he dragged her off the bed and she gasped in agony. 

"Leave her alone!" yelled Chakotay.  He moved to get up but one of the guards holding Mark pointed his weapon at him.  "Where are you taking them?" 

"The High Command has determined that their usefulness is at an end," said one of the guards ambiguously.  They left the cell and reactivated the forcefield.  Kathryn had trouble seeing from the searing pain in her arm, but she could hear Chakotay calling after her. 

Chakotay walked to the forcefield and watched them drag Kathryn out of sight. "Kathryn!" he yelled, and then she was gone.  He walked back to the wall of the cell and sank down in despair.

*    *    *

Kathryn and Mark were put on a smaller ship, under heavy guard and taken to a planet within a few hours journey using the subspace tunnels.  They disembarked on a barren, windswept planet, and were taken towards a small building surrounded by guards. 

"New prisoners," said one of their guards. 

"More of the weak species," growled one of the sentries derisively. "I hope you don't expect them to survive." 

"They are no longer valuable," shrugged another guard. 

"Very well…but don't say that I didn't warn you." The sentry went inside and Kathryn and Mark followed him in, still surrounded by guards.  Inside, the building was manned by soldiers who didn't seem to be doing more than sitting around.  They were led to a small platform surrounded by a railing, and were shoved onto it by their guards.  Only the sentry from the door got on the platform with them, but he had a large weapon and they didn't dare try and overpower him.  The platform jerked and then slowly descended into the floor.  There were no walls on the elevator, so they could see that they were surrounded by solid rock.  They descended for a few minutes before the lift began to slow.  The guard pressed a few buttons on the lift and cocked his weapon.  They descended into a large cavern with a set of metal doors immediately in front of the lift.  When the lift stopped, the guard shoved them off the platform, then pressed a button and the doors opened.  He grunted to indicate that they should go through them, so they did.  The instant that they were clear of the doors, they slammed shut behind them and they looked around their new surroundings.  They were in a massive underground cavern with a few lights installed on the walls here and there.  It seemed deserted at first, but then Kathryn noticed something over to one side.  "Mark!" she hissed, and he looked in the direction he was pointing.  A large group of aliens were gathered over to their right, but they didn't seem to have noticed them yet. 

"Turei?" he asked, still not familiar with some of the Delta quadrant species. 

"Yes – and from my experience I don't think that we want to have a run in with them." She looked around for a place to run or hide, and when she couldn't find one, decided that they should just stick to the shadows and move in the opposite direction. 

"I agree," whispered Mark.  She looked at him in surprise for a second before he grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," he whispered. 

She chuckled and whispered back as they started to move along the wall, "That's all right.  It's just that it's been a while since I've been around a real telepath." 

"Your helmsman, Stadi," he said, and them stopped himself again. "Sorry. I'll try to stop doing that.  I'm not usually this perceptive.  It's just that when you're isolated with someone for a long period of time – " 

" – it gets easier to read their mind?" she finished. 

"Something like that," he grinned.  They moved along in the shadows and eventually came to a wall in the rock that they were able to hide behind.  They moved around it and sat on the ground. 

"So much for our rescue," Kathryn muttered. 

"Voyager will still come looking for you," he said.  "They'll just find Chakotay instead, and hopefully they'll be able to track us down." 

"If anyone can find us, it's my crew," she said proudly. "And if they don't find us, Mark, I know Chakotay will have them look for your crew."  She tried not to think about what Chakotay would be going through, not knowing where she was.  She could easily imagine what he was feeling right now, because she was feeling something similar.  At least she was confident that Voyager would rescue him – a comfort he didn't have.  For all he knew they had been killed or taken halfway across the quadrant. 

She was interrupted from her train of thought when she noticed Mark get a funny look in his eye and he started looking around suspiciously. 

"What is it?" whispered Kathryn. 

"I just had the weirdest feeling," he said. "When I was thinking about my crew…like I could feel them nearby." 

"Do you think it's possible that they're here? You said that Takken had captured some of your crew with you.  Maybe he sent them here as well." 

"Maybe…let's look around." They got up and slowly began exploring the area.

*    *    *

Back on Voyager, Seven, B'Elanna, and Tom were in the Paris quarters devising the rescue operation that they would implement as soon as they intercepted the Vaadwaur ship in a few days.  B'Elanna was seated at the desk, while Seven had taken a chair on the opposite side and Tom was sitting on the edge of the desk looking over a PADD. 

"It looks like their shields aren't as advanced as ours," Tom said. "If we can't take out their generator from Voyager, I could probably take the Flyer and punch through their shields." 

"We should re-examine our data on their shield grids," said Seven, and she rose to leave. "I can access the data in Astrometrics." 

"It'll be more _efficient if you work here with us," said B'Elanna with a grin. "I'm sure we have another computer terminal around here somewhere.  Check the other room." _

Seven got up and walked into the adjacent room.  She looked around, but did not see a computer terminal at first.  There was a storage container sitting on the floor, and when she opened it there was a folded computer terminal sitting on the top.  She picked it up and closed the container before she returned to the living area. 

"Did you find it?" asked B'Elanna. 

"Yes," said Seven, and she sat down and opened it.  She frowned when she saw what was on the screen. "There is an active data file.  Do you need the results of this analysis?" 

"What analysis? I close all the active files when I'm done," replied B'Elanna. She reached across the desk and swiveled the computer around to face her. "This isn't my terminal," she said. "Where did you find it?"

"In a storage container." 

"That's the Captain's old terminal," said Tom, but his wife was not listening.  She was looking at what was on the screen. "B'Elanna? What is it?" 

It took a moment for her to respond. "Something the Captain was working on, it looks like.  I wish I'd looked at it before." 

"Why?" asked Tom. 

"Because it looks like Captain Janeway wasn't the only person that the Vaadwaur grabbed.  I can't believe that nobody thought of this before…"

She turned the screen to face them, and Tom and Seven stared at the screen in shock as they realized its significance.  Tom was the first one to speak up. 

"We'd better get Tuvok."

*    *    *

Chakotay wasn't sure how long it had been since they took Kathryn.  He had been interrogated once, but it had seemed like a half-hearted attempt, and his only response had been to continually ask them where they had taken Kathryn and Mark.  His best guess was that it had been about five days, but he couldn't be sure.  The silence was starting to get to him – for the past few weeks, there had always been someone to talk to, and the three of them had always been talking when they weren't too exhausted for conversation.  Kathryn and Chakotay had told Mark about some of their more interesting adventures over the past six years, and Mark had told them about what had been going on in the Alpha quadrant.  Now, there was nothing but silence as Chakotay sat in the cell. 

The silence was finally broken after a few minutes when the ship shook violently.  He got up and walked to the entrance of his cell, but it was quiet out in the corridor and gave him no indication of what was going on.  The ship continued to jolt and shake beneath him for a few minutes, and then panels in the corridors began exploding.  Now there was a commotion in the corridor, down around the corner where Mark's old cell was.  He heard phaser fire being exchanged, and a Vaadwaur guard backed around the corner before a red bolt of energy struck him in the chest and he fell to the ground. 

"This way!" came a familiar voice from around the corner. 

"Tom!" yelled Chakotay, and he saw Lieutenant Paris come around the corner, followed closely by Seven of Nine and two security guards that he recognized as Lieutenant Rollins and Lieutenant Ayala. 

"Chakotay – good to see you." Tom jogged over to the cell and deactivated the forcefield while the rest of the team secured the area. 

"Do you know where Captain Janeway is?" he asked as Chakotay exited the cell. 

"No – they took her away a few days ago and I haven't seen her since." 

Seven heard him and walked over with her tricorder. "I am not reading any other humans on board the vessel.  I do not believe the Captain is here." 

"What about Betazoids?" asked Chakotay. 

Seven gave him a quizzical look but checked her tricorder nevertheless. "No." 

He sighed with relief.  He would have liked to rescue Mark, but if he was not on board he was probably still with Kathryn, a thought that gave him some comfort.

On board Voyager, Harry manned Ops while they monitored the progress of the away team.  The Vaadwaur ship was trying to escape at impulse, and Voyager was pursuing.  He alerted Tuvok when he noticed some alarming readings. "Sir, I'm reading gravimetric distortions directly ahead of the Vaadwaur ship." 

Tuvok was about to respond when the away team checked in. 

_Paris__ to Voyager._

"Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"We've located Chakotay but the Captain's not here."  Tom looked around in disappointment as Tuvok's voice came over the comm. 

_Acknowledged.__ Prepare to – _

Tuvok was cut off in mid-sentence and when Tom hit his commbadge he got no response.

"Sir, they've entered the subspace tunnel," reported Harry. 

"Can you follow them?" 

"No.  It's already closed behind them and we don't know how to open it.  I managed to scan the inside of the tunnel just before it closed so we might be able to figure out what direction they're headed." 

"Begin long-range scans for their warp signature."

The now isolated away team looked around nervously. "So, Chakotay, you've been here a while," quipped Tom. "Know how we get out of here?" 

"Sorry, I haven't had the grand tour yet." 

They armed themselves and fired as Vaadwaur soldiers came down the hallway, but they were outnumbered and cornered and were soon forced to surrender.  They were shoved back into Chakotay's cell and the forcefield was activated. 

"Some rescue," muttered Ayala. "Sorry, sir." 

Chakotay patted him on the back. "At least Voyager knows where we are. They'll find us. Kath – the Captain and I were confident that you would track us down and you did." 

The away team spent the next few hours listening to Chakotay as he told them about what had happened to him since the attack on the Flyer, including what Kathryn had told him about her abduction and the encounter with Commander Walker.  In turn, he wanted to know exactly how they had figured out that he and Kathryn were alive, and was impressed with their investigative skills. 

*    *    *

A few days later, the ship landed and the five of them were ushered out of the prison and transported off the ship to a barren landscape.  They were taken to the same building that Kathryn and Mark had arrived at over a week ago.  They were put on the lift, this time with two guards, and were shoved into the main area through the doors as the lift withdrew. 

They weren't as fortunate as Kathryn and Mark, because the Turei had heard the elevator descending and surrounded them in front of the main doors as soon as they walked through them.  They were unable to understand their captors without the universal translator, but it seemed as though they were arguing about what to do with their new find.  One of them leered at Seven and approached her, running a finger along her cheek.  She grabbed his forearm and twisted it away from his body, dislocating his shoulder.  He walked away yelling and one of his companions hit Seven in the face with a long metal pole, leaving her dazed. 

The Turei moved towards the rest of them menacingly, but then a voice from behind their captors yelled out as if sounding an alarm.  They heard the sounds of people running and shouting, and the Turei who had surrounded them walked away to see what all the commotion was about.  The away team looked at each other in puzzlement, and then they heard a voice from behind them. 

"Pushna!" someone whispered urgently. "Pushna lay!"

They all turned around and had to look for a moment before they could see where the voice had come from – a small hole in the rock behind them beside the metal doors that concealed the elevator shaft.

Tom looked at Chakotay.  "I hope that's as friendly as it sounds."

"Seems like somebody wants to help us," replied Chakotay, and after a moment's hesitation he motioned for them to move quietly towards the tunnel, trying not to attract attention. 

"Pushna lay.  Itna kai shonaka," said the voice as they approached the wall.  They squirmed through the narrow hole in the wall and found themselves in a stone passageway about the size of a Jeffries tube.  When all five of them were in, their rescuer, whose voice revealed her to be female, replaced a cover on the hole and secured it in place.  "Pushna.  Hunnata grok kansana pora ta lek." Their rescuer made her words clear by motioning for them to follow her through the tunnel.

"What I wouldn't give for a universal translator," muttered Tom as they began crawling along in the tunnel. 

"Unata par hashana," said the woman in response, pointing to herself.

"Hashana?" repeated Chakotay.  "Is that your name?"

The woman stopped and turned around with an expression of pleasant surprise.  "Pora azanti – unata par Hashana.  Pora unata?"

Seeing the woman's face for the first time, the Voyager officers immediately recognized her species.

"You're Wysanti," said Tom as they began crawling along the tunnel again. 

"Adi.  Unata par Hashana, dokassa par Wysanti.  Dokassa pora Federation. 

Chakotay glanced back at the others.  "Did you say Federation?" 

"Adi – dokassa pora Federation." 

"How could she know that?" asked Tom. 

"Perhaps she encountered Voyager when we left Azan, Rebi, and Mezoti on their homeworld," suggested Seven.  "Or she may have heard of us." 

They continued crawling through the tunnel and reached the end, where Hashana knocked three times on another grate, which was then opened. 

"Posha gantrel?" asked a male voice from outside. 

"Adi," grunted the woman as she took the proffered hand that came from above. "Dokassa pana Federation." 

"What?" A man's head poked inside the tunnel. "Well I'll be damned."  He helped Hashana out of the tunnel and stood up. "Pushnata lonar," he told Hashana before turning around and yelling over his shoulder, "Jarel, you'd better get over here." Leaning back in the tunnel, he offered a hand to Seven, who was still dazed from the earlier blow to the head, and he helped her out of the tunnel.  When the entire team was out and their eyes had adjusted from the darkness of the tunnel, they could see that they were in a cave similar to the one that they had entered from the lift. The man who had helped them out of the tunnel was tall, blond, and appeared human.  He was wearing what might have been a newer Starfleet uniform, but the gray jacket was closer to black now, and the color of the turtleneck underneath might have been blue at one time. 

"You're from Voyager," said the man as Chakotay and the others climbed out of the tunnel. 

Chakotay glanced at Tom.  "Yes…"  There was only one possible explanation for the way the man was dressed.  "Are you from the Yukon?" 

"Lieutenant Nathan Blake," he said, offering his hand. "Our scouts heard the elevator descending, so we faked a raid on the Turei camp to distract them long enough for Hashana to get you all out of there." 

A young Bajoran woman wearing the remains of a Starfleet engineering uniform came up behind Lieutenant Blake.  When she got close enough to see the new arrivals, she stopped in her tracks. 

"Commander Chakotay!" 

The away team looked at each other in surprise. 

"How…"

She pointed to her left temple with a smile.  "Your tattoo." 

Chakotay drew in a sharp breath as a thought occurred to him. "Are Commander Walker and Captain Janeway here?" 

They were all pleasantly surprised when the young woman nodded. "For about a week now – they should be back from pulling off the raid by now." 

She was about to say something else when their Wysanti rescuer came running up, followed by another woman whose distinctive spots running down the side of her face identified her as a Trill.  The Trill woman was also in uniform, and she had striking dark hair loosely fastened at her neck that highlighted the dark spots that ran down each side of her face.  The spots continued down her neck, where they met the frayed top of a red command turtleneck adorned with two pips. 

"Askynta lakal!" said Hashana as the two women approached. 

Leiutenant Blake tensed.  "How bad?" 

"They weren't able to make a clean getaway and Mark's hurt," said the Trill woman. 

Tom stepped forward. "I can help," he said. "I have some medical training." The group ran off, following the two women across the cave to where a few people were gathered around a figure on the ground. Before they could see her, the team from Voyager heard their Captain's voice. 

"Help me get his jacket off – we've got to get a look at it." 

Mark, who was the one sitting on the ground, protested. "Really, Kathryn, it's just a scratch. I'll be fine."

Chakotay and the others were closer now, and they saw Captain Janeway stand up and turn to the Trill woman now beside her. "They noticed them missing before we got away.  Did Hashana get back all right?" 

The woman smiled and looked over the Captain's shoulder at the people from Voyager standing behind her. "Yes…and she brought some friends of yours." 

She hadn't noticed Tom move to Mark's side to help the others, so she was completely shocked when she turned around and saw Chakotay, Seven, and the two security officers standing almost right behind her.  Her hair was longer now, and it fell loosely around her bare shoulders.  She was wearing her tank top, with her jacket discarded on the floor nearby, and she still sported the mementos of her time on the Vaadwaur ship.  Her arms and face were cut and bruised, and her left arm was covered with the burns she got from shoving it through the forcefield.  She held her other arm, the broken one, close to her side and still favored it a little. 

She was speechless for a moment, but then recovered. "Chakotay!" she said, and rushed over to him. He pulled her to him, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.  Ayala and Rollins looked sideways at each other in surprise – this was completely out of character for the Captain. 

They stood like that for a long time, each relieved beyond words to find that the other was all right.  Chakotay finally stepped away from her and looked at her carefully. "Are you okay?" 

"Fine," she said dismissively with a wave of her hand. She looked at Seven and the others. "It's good to see you, Seven…Ayala, Rollins." 

"It's good to see you, too, Captain," replied the ex-drone with just a hint of emotion.  The other two men nodded their acknowledgement. 

She turned back to Chakotay. "How did you get here?" 

Seven answered for him. "We boarded the Vaadwaur ship in an attempt to rescue you and Commander Chakotay, but Voyager was unable to beam us back after we had freed the Commander and we were captured." 

"But if we hadn't been caught we wouldn't have found _you." The Captain turned around to see Tom Paris coming up behind her with a fond smile on his face. _

She introduced them to her companions.  "You've already met Hashana and Nathan, I see.  This is Lieutenant Talia Oren," she said, indicating the Trill woman beside her, "And Lieutenant Adin Jarel," pointing to the Bajoran woman. There were also eight others from the Yukon – two ensigns, three crewmen, and two civilians.  In the prison, they had banded together with the group of Wysanti who were also being held there so they could defend themselves against the Turei.

*   *   *

_Icheb to Commander Tuvok._

"Go ahead." 

_I believe I may have a lead on the whereabouts of the away team._

"Understood." Tuvok indicated to Ensign Kim to go to Astrometrics.

Icheb pulled up an image of a planet on the view screen.  "It's an M-class planet in orbit around a G-type star.  Seven showed it to the Vaadwaur when they were on Voyager.  It's located approximately thirty light-years from here." He entered commands in the console. "I scanned for the frequency of Seven's cortical implant, and I believe that she is on this planet." 

"Can you be sure?" asked Harry. 

"No…the signal is very weak.  However," he continued, "This planet has an subterranean water supply, so I believe that it is possible that they are being held underground." 

"Good work, Icheb.  I'll inform Commander Tuvok."

*    *    *

The Captain drew another circle in the sandy ground with a thin metal pole.  "And there's a water source over here.  That's where we found some of the containers."

Chakotay nodded beside her.  "We're going to need some water if we get to the surface."  He reached over and took the pole from her hands.  "Looks like these tunnels would be the safest."

She nodded her agreement and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand as they squatted next to her crude map.  Stray tendrils of hair were falling in her face, and although she brushed them back they fell forward again.  She was still wearing her tank top, and rested her elbows on her knees as she looked at the diagram.

As she studied the drawings in the sand, he studied her.  His eyes ran over the cuts, bruises, and scars on her arms, and he winced, feeling every one of her wounds as much as she could.  His eyes moved upward, taking in every detail of her face.  He could tell that the last few weeks were taking a toll on her, but she still looked incredibly determined.  Despite the situation, he had never felt more drawn to her than he did right now.  She was so strong -- that was one of the things he loved about her.  She always was at her best when she was under pressure.

He was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he didn't know she had noticed him looking at her.  He only realized that she was aware of his scrutiny when she self-consciously ran her fingers through her hair.  "I must look awful," she chuckled.

"No.  You look beautiful."

She laughed, but stopped immediately when she saw he was serious.

She was saved the trouble of thinking of something to say when Seven, Tom, and Jarel climbed out of the nearby tunnel and came over to join them.  They had snuck through the tunnel to inspect the lift and see if they could use it to escape. 

"Did you find a way out?" asked the Captain as they joined her. 

"I believe so," said Seven. "My Borg implants can be used to short circuit the main doors and give us access to the lift." 

"We'll probably have to wait for it to come down," said Jarel. "But we should be able to take them by surprise." 

Chakotay was the first one to point out a drawback.  "We'll still have to take out all the guards in the building at the top." 

"Alanshar?" asked one of the nearby Wysanti who was listening to their conversation. 

Chakotay glanced at the Captain.  "Do you know what he's saying?" 

"I think he wants to understand us.  I've only learned a little bit of their language."  She paused for a minute to think.  "Guards – boranta," she said, pointing upwards. 

"Boranta tosh forantash," he repeated.  "Utana moy." 

"Yes," said the Captain.  "Utana moy.  We're going to get out of here." 

"Pan utana moy tosh pora ta lek kai shonaka tosh." 

Janeway frowned.  "Shonaka?  You mean the tunnels?" she asked, pointing to one of the tunnels they had been using. 

The Wysanti shook his head and pointed upwards.  "Shonaka tosh.  Utana moy."

"What's he saying?" asked Tom. 

"I'm not sure," admitted the Captain.  "'Shonaka' is the word they use for the tunnels, and 'utana moy' means escape…but I don't see how –"

"Captain, I believe I know what he is referring to," said Seven. "When we were brought down I noticed a ventilation shaft that connected to the tunnel approximately twenty meters down the main shaft.  We should be able to stop the lift and use the ventilation shaft to reach the surface." 

The Captian smiled at the Wysanti.  "Good idea." 

"Too bad Seven won't be able to point it out to us," said Tom.  The others looked at him in confusion. "I tried to tell Seven this before, but if she uses her assimilation tubules to overload the circuits in the doors, she'll experience the shock too." 

"That is irrelevant," said Seven. "I will not be permanently damaged." 

The Captain looked at Tom and Jarel with a raised eyebrow.  They glanced at each other before responding.

"She's probably right – it doesn't look like there's that much power in the door circuits," said Jarel reluctantly. 

"But we can't be sure what the overload might do to her Borg implants," added Tom. "A drone could do it without blinking, but with Seven…it's risky." 

"I am willing to take that risk if it allows our escape," insisted Seven. 

Captain Janeway considered for a moment before she decided. "All right, Seven.  We'll try it – but first I want to be prepared.  This planet doesn't seem very hospitable and I want to stock up on supplies before we get out of here." 

Fortunately, what the Vaadwaur were using as a prison was actually an old abandoned mining facility - hence the tunnels - and there were piles of abandoned equipment spread around the caverns. 

"Tom," continued the Captain, "You, Seven, and Jarel handle the details of getting out of here. Chakotay, you and I will work on any supplies we might need. Mark, you and Talia can help us and get everyone ready to leave.  We're getting out of here." 


	6. The Escape

DISCLAIMER:   You all know the drill - Paramount is God.  All hail Paramount.  They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go.  All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish).

SUMMARY: Captain Janeway and her officers attempt to escape from their captivity, but not everything goes as planned.

THE LONG ROAD HOME

SEPARATIONS

CHAPTER SIX : THE ESCAPE

Within a few hours, preparations had started.  They had begun gathering rations and supplies and were sorting out the details.  Captain Janeway and Chakotay, along with Lieutenant Blake and Ensign Martens, were making their way towards the underground water source to take as much as they could with them to the surface.  They had found an abandoned pile of small storage containers that they thought were watertight, so they went to the pool to fill them up. 

"We'll need to make at least five trips," the Captain was saying as they made their way over the rough path towards the water. "My last count had over forty of us, and that lift won't hold more that seven or eight people at a time." 

"We'll also have to keep a couple of people on the lift at all times, so that makes even more trips," added Chakotay. 

"What are we going to do if that ventilation shaft is twenty meters straight up?" Lieutenant Blake wanted to know. 

"Well, there are forty of us…I think we'd stretch pretty far if we got up on each other's shoulders." They all chuckled at the mental image. 

"We could find some kind of tool that might be able to make handholds in the rock," suggested Chakotay.

"And we only need to get a couple of people to the surface to lower the rope for the rest of us," pointed out Captain Janeway.  "I'm sure we can find a couple of avid climbers in the group." 

They came to a small ledge that overlooked the water source, and stopped to make sure that the pool was deserted.  When they saw no one after a minute or two, Chakotay and Nathan hopped down off the ledge.  Chakotay turned around and helped the Captain and Kelly Martens, a young science ensign from the Yukon, jump down while Nathan checked the area carefully. 

"Looks clear," he confirmed.  They grabbed the containers that were still on the ledge and moved towards the water.  Using some of the smaller containers to fill the larger ones, they proceeded quickly with a minimum of conversation. 

They were nearly finished when Kelly Martens stood up beside the container she was filling with the Captain.  "Did you hear something?" she asked. 

"What?" The Captain stood up and looked around. 

"It was like…a rock being kicked or something." 

The foursome looked around suspiciously but could not see anything.  Nathan secured the lid on the container that he had been filling and carried it over to the ledge where they had come in.  When he was walking back to the pool, a figure jumped out of the shadows with a yell and tackled him to the ground.  Chakotay moved to help Nathan, but two more Turei jumped out and attacked him.  Captain Janeway and Ensign Martens were set on by three more, and they tried desperately to fight off their larger attackers.  They managed to knock one of them down, and the Captain whispered urgently in Martens' ear. "Get back to camp and bring help.  Make sure you're not followed." 

"But – "

"We're outnumbered. Do it."  With that, Ensign Martens ducked under one of her attackers and ran quickly in the direction that they had come from.  Lieutenant Blake and Chakotay saw her running and, guessing that she was going for reinforcements, distracted without much difficulty the three Turei that were still attacking them.  She made it to the passageway that they had come from and took off in the direction of camp. 

Chakotay managed to take out one of the Turei that was attacking him, but there was still one more.  He glanced over at the Captain and saw her slam her remaining opponent into the rock wall with her elbow to his throat.  He was distracted for a second when the Turei that he was fighting swung a heavy metal pole at his head, and when he looked back he saw the Captain still holding her attacker against the wall, but one of the others that had been knocked down already had gotten up and was moving up behind her. 

"Captain! Behind you!" he yelled at her as he ducked another swing.  

She whipped around too late, and the Turei grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her against the wall, slamming her head against the rock.  She felt dazed for a moment, but then fought back.  It was hard, because he was larger than her and had her pinned against the rock wall.  She managed to shove him away for a second, but before she could move away from the wall, he reached for something in his belt and came at her again.  She was thrown back against the wall and felt a sharp excruciating pain in her abdomen.  She looked down and saw him pull away a crude metal dagger covered with blood. 

Chakotay grabbed his opponent's arm and used it to flip him onto his back on the ground, knocking him out cold.  He glanced at Lieutenant Blake, who was holding his own, and then went to help Kathryn.  She was still pinned against the wall, so Chakotay leaned down and grabbed the metal pole that his assailant had been using.  He sprinted over to her and grabbed her attacker from behind, turning him around and hitting him on the side of the head with the metal pole.  He fell to the ground, and Chakotay looked around.  Nathan had managed to subdue his attacker, so Chakotay decided to get out of there before more arrived.  He turned to Kathryn to see if she was hurt. She looked pale, and was sagged against the wall with her hand clutching her side. 

"Can you make it back to camp?" he asked.  She nodded. The adrenaline coursing through her system made her oblivious to the burning pain in her side, and she was barely even aware that she was hurt. 

"Nathan!" yelled Chakotay. "Grab the other container here and get it back to camp.  We're right behind you." Lieutenant Blake put the lid on the container that Janeway and Martens had been filling, and carried it over to the ledge that led back to camp.  Chakotay and the Captain followed him.  At first, he had his arm around her shoulders, but after he helped her up on to the ledge he left her to go on unsupported so that he could carry the other container.  She made her way unsteadily along the tunnel, using one hand to balance herself along the wall and keeping her other hand clutched over the wound that she was still largely unaware of. 

They met Ensign Martens and the others about a third of the way back to camp.  Somebody took the water container off Chakotay's hands, and he put his arm around Kathryn's shoulders again.  She used her free arm to grab his shoulder, and leaned on him for support. 

When they reached the camp, the Captain leaned back on a large rock and continued clutching her side.  She hadn't yet realized the extent of her injury, and began giving orders. She told them to gather the water and supplies and prepare to leave.  She told Seven to take Tom, Jarel, Lieutenant Rollins and Lieutenant Ayala and go get the doors open. 

"The rest of us will wait here until the team returns from the lift and we get weapons," she finished. 

"We'll have to stick together in a group," said Chakotay. "If we're spread out we're more vulnerable to attack." 

Seven and her four companions crawled through the tunnels and reached the exit by the metal doors.  They looked out first to see if there were any Turei around, and when they were sure the coast was clear, they climbed out of the tunnel, replaced the cover, and moved over to the doors.  Seven approached a small wall panel, and used the exoskeleton of her left hand to tap into the computer panel and override the door.  A current of electricity snaked across her implant and up her arm, and she fell limp.  Tom caught her as the doors slid open.  The Turei nearby heard the doors open, and they heard them approaching as they ran inside the doors and closed them behind them.  Checking Seven's pulse and satisfied that she would be all right, Tom propped her up in a corner and moved to where the lift came down.  He saw Jarel examining a panel and moved over to help her. 

"It looks like a sensor for the door," she said.  "Seven managed to bypass it, but if we activate it, they'll think that somebody's trying to pry the door open." 

"Why would we want that?" asked Tom. 

"If they think that there's a problem, they'll come down to stop it." 

"And we can grab them from behind," he finished. "Good – do it." She hit a few buttons on the controls, and a light began flashing on the console.  After a few seconds, they heard the lift start to descend.  They cracked the door open slightly, and then backed against the wall behind the lift so they wouldn't be immediately visible to the guards.  The Turei, who were still outside, saw the door shift open slightly and began banging their fists and weapons on it. Tom grinned. _All the better, he thought. _

It took a few minutes for the lift to come down, but they eventually saw it in the shaft above them coming slowly towards the floor.  They saw four guards on the platform, and as soon as the lift stopped one of them pointed to the commotion outside the doors, and they stepped off the lift.  Tom motioned with his hand, and he and the three others jumped the guards from behind.  They had the advantage of surprise, and managed to overpower the guards and take their weapons.  Setting them on stun, they shot each of the guards in turn and piled them in a corner.  Jarel shut the doors completely and began working on the lift controls. "I think I can disconnect the sensors so that they won't be able to tell that the lift is moving." Her fingers flew over the controls as she worked. 

She froze when a voice came over the communications system:  _Krilum__, report._

"Can you add some static to the comm system?" Tom asked her.  When she nodded, he reached for a button and cleared his throat. 

"Some of the prisoners tried to pry the door open," he said. "We stopped them but they damaged the lift and I'll need to repair it before we can return to the surface." 

_Acknowledged.__  Tanak out._

They sighed with relief, and Tom motioned to the two security officers.  Ayala and Rollins took three of the weapons from the guards, leaving one for Tom, and moved out the doors.  The Turei had surrounded the area, but since the two lieutenants were armed the aggressors backed off.  They didn't use the tunnels since they still wanted to conceal their existence, so they took off in the direction of camp at a slow jog..

"Someone's coming," said Lieutenant Oren, who was on the lookout. "It's Ayala and Rollins."  The group sighed with relief when the two security officers came into view carrying weapons. 

"We have access to the lift.  Tom and Jarel are fixing it so they won't know it's in use," reported Ayala.

"Good work," said Chakotay. "All right, everybody, let's move." 

As people began gathering up supplies, Chakotay turned to the Captain.  He noticed that she was still sitting limply on the same rock that she had leaned on when they came back with the water.  He thought that this was unusual, since she was usually a very hands-on leader, but right now she was content to lean limply on the rock and give orders from there.  He looked carefully at her, and for the first time noticed that all the color had drained from her face and her eyes seemed glazed over.  When she saw him moving through the growing crowd towards her, she pushed herself weakly into a standing position and gently reached for the rock as she wavered on her feet.  She was still clutching her side with her other hand, and as the adrenaline in her system subsided, she was becoming aware of the pain that was throbbing in her side.

"Kathryn, are you okay?"  He moved closer and put his hands on her shoulders to steady her. 

She looked down at her hand and slowly pulled it away from her body.  It was covered in blood, and she stared at it in puzzlement as if it belonged to someone else.  After a moment, the significance of the dagger, the pain and the blood dawned on her and her eyes widened in horror. 

Chakotay followed her gaze and his jaw dropped as he saw her bloody hand.  The blood wasn't visible on her black uniform, but the red color contrasted sharply with the pale skin on her hand.  His head snapped up and he looked her in the eyes.  "Kathryn?" 

The fear in his eyes was mirrored in hers for a few seconds, but then her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell limp.  Chakotay caught her and lowered her gently to the ground as he yelled for help.  Talia and Mark ran over. 

"What is it?" Talia asked as they came up. 

"She's bleeding," said Chakotay, starting to panic. He quickly unzipped her jacket to reveal that her tank top underneath was soaked in blood. "It must have been from when we were attacked before." 

"I'll get something to stop the bleeding," said Talia, and she ran off. 

"Kathryn…can you hear me?" Chakotay sighed with relief when her eyes fluttered open. "Why didn't you say anything?" 

"About what?" she muttered back. 

"About being stabbed in the gut." 

"I guess I didn't notice," she said weakly with a grin. 

He shook his head at her attempted humor and lifted the bottom of her tank top as Talia returned with some material to clean the wound.  Chakotay wiped away most of the blood and could see the wound just under her ribcage.  He held a small wad of cloth against it and then used a longer strip to tie it in place before he pulled her shirt back down over it. 

"It looks pretty bad," said Talia quietly. 

Chakotay nodded. "And it looks like she's lost a lot of blood.  Do you think you can walk?" he asked her.  She nodded and grabbed his shoulder as he helped her to her feet.  Her legs folded under her for a moment, but she steadied herself and he helped her move in the direction of the rest of the group with his arm around her waist. 

The large group slowly made their way away from camp toward the lift.  The Turei moved towards them aggressively when they saw them approach, but when one of them lunged towards them and was stunned with one of the weapons, they retreated to a safe distance.  Mark knocked on the door, and it opened to reveal Tom and Jarel working at the controls.  Seven was still propped up unconscious in the corner.  Chakotay, still supporting Kathryn, made his way over to Tom and Jarel. 

"Are we ready?" he asked. 

"I think so," said Tom.  "I'll take somebody up to access the shaft and – " he broke off when he saw the Captain hanging on Chakotay's shoulder, her jacket hanging open to reveal her shirt covered in blood. 

"What happened?" 

"She got stabbed when we were getting the water and neglected to mention it until she passed out.  Could you have a look at it before you go up?" 

"Sure," said Tom, and he helped Chakotay sit her against the console on the floor. "Pardon me, Captain," quipped Tom as he pulled her tank top up to below her chest. 

"Just watch your hands, Lieutenant," she said with a weak grin.  Tom lifted up the bandage and checked on the wound. 

"Looks clean – but it could get infected and you could have internal injuries.  Keep your hand over the bandage as much as possible," he instructed her, "To try and stop the bleeding.  And try not to move too much." He stood up and addressed the rest of the group. "Anybody here ever been rock climbing?" 

A pair of hands went up. 

"Okay – Briggs, Keller, you're with me.  Jarel, we'll send the lift down when we're in the shaft." Tom climbed on the platform with his weapon and was joined by Ensign Keller and Crewman Briggs from the Yukon crew, who carried the rope that they had found with some other abandoned equipment. 

"See you at the top," Tom said with a grin, and the lift slowly ascended into the shaft.  They rose for a couple of minutes before he saw the ventilation shaft and stopped the lift. They pried the grate off and he followed the two men into the shaft.  It was only about a meter square, so they had to crawl on their hands and knees until they reached the end of the tunnel where the vertical shaft began.  They stood up and looked upwards towards the grate at the top, over twenty meters above them. 

Fortunately, the sides of the shaft were not smooth and there were plenty of handholds all the way up to the top.  Tom put the makeshift rope over his shoulder and followed Crewman Briggs as he began to climb.  It was difficult, and he slipped a few times before he had gone more than a few meters, but he slowly advanced towards the top.  Ensign Keller followed behind Tom, and the three of them made slow progress.

About halfway to the top, Tom heard Crewman Briggs yelp as his foot slipped.  A few small rocks fell down towards Tom and hit him in the face.  Briggs tried to find another foothold, but the small outcropping he put his weight on crumbled and he lost his grip.  He plummeted towards the bottom of the shaft, landing on Tom's shoulder as he passed.  Tom lost his grip on one side, but his other hand had a firm hold on the rock and he was able to stay on the wall.  Briggs had not hit Ensign Keller, who was still on the wall below Tom. 

"Shawn – you okay?" asked Keller. 

"Yeah," came a groan from the bottom. "I think I broke my ankle, but I'm fine.  Keep going without me."

Tom and Keller continued up the shaft, being particularly careful when they passed the section where Briggs had slipped, and eventually made it to the top.  Tom reached up and removed the grate above them, and climbed out on the surface.  He helped Ensign Keller climb out and then took the rope off his shoulder and threw one end down the shaft. 

"Briggs," he yelled. "Can you take the lift back down to the surface or do you want one of us to come down?" 

"I'll go this time.  Otherwise there'll only be one of you to hold the rope for the next group."

The others were waiting anxiously at the bottom when they heard the lift start to come down again. They kept their weapons trained on it, but lowered them when they saw Crewman Briggs alone on the lift.

"Going up," he said with a grin. "Tom and Justin made it to the surface." 

The first group was shuttled to the shaft, and Tom and Ensign Keller held the rope while the group climbed up to the surface.  When they had all made it, they pulled Crewman Briggs up and then Tom climbed down the rope and took the lift back to the bottom. 

When almost everybody had been taken to the surface, he let Commander Walker take the lift up while he walked over to where Chakotay and the Captain were sitting on the ground. 

"Did everyone make it up okay?" asked Chakotay as he approached. 

"Yeah.  Crewman Briggs broke his ankle when we were climbing up the first time, but everything else went smoothly.  How's she doing?" 

"I'm fine," said the Captain. 

"No offense, Captain, but I have a feeling you'd say that if you were missing a limb.  I'll take the two of you up in the next group." 

"No," she protested. "Get everybody else out first." 

He grinned at her. "I already did. I knew you'd want to go last.  The only ones left are the two of you, Seven, Adin Jarel, and Nathan Blake." 

When Mark came back with the lift, Chakotay and Tom helped the Captain onto it, and Mark carried Seven over. Jarel and Nathan hopped on, and they headed for the top.  When they reached the shaft, Tom and Nathan climbed in, then took Seven from Mark before he followed them in.  Chakotay climbed in next and helped Kathryn in after him.  They waited for Jarel while she worked on the controls.  She hit a button and quickly climbed into the shaft as the lift fell out from under her. 

"I destroyed the velocity controls.  It'll impact on the ground and won't be operational for a while." 

"Good work, Lieutenant," said Chakotay.  "Now let's get out of here."  Kathryn and Seven, who was still unconscious, slowed their progress.  Kathryn put her arm over Chakotay's shoulder, and used her arm from her uninjured side to move along.  He had his arm around her too, and they crawled along slowly side by side. 

When they reached the vertical shaft, they yelled up to the top to tell them that they had arrived before figuring out what to do.  They had managed to get the injured Crewman Briggs to the top without much difficulty, but he was able to hold onto the rope.  Neither Seven nor Kathryn could, so they would have to go up with someone.  Mark offered to take Seven, so they put her arms around his neck and tied them with a ripped piece of material.  They tied a loop in the rope that hung from the top of the shaft, and Mark stuck his foot in it.  He held onto the rope with one hand, and put his other arm around Seven with the rope in the crook of his arm, and was slowly pulled towards the top.  Kathryn, exhausted, had sat down against the wall on one side of the shaft.  Chakotay walked over to her and noticed that her eyes were closed. 

"Kathryn?" When she didn't respond immediately, he put his hand on her cheek and gently tapped it.  Her eyes came open slowly. 

"Stay with me – you hear?" he said, trying to hide his concern.  "We've come this far – I'm not going to lose you now." 

She nodded in response, and he sat with her until the rope was dropped back down to the bottom.  He helped her up and walked with her over to the rope.  He secured his foot in the loop they had made and turned to her with a grin. 

"Do I need to tie your arms around me or do you think you can hold on?" 

"I think I can manage," she said, returning his grin, but she was hanging onto the rope for support as she spoke and her voice wavered.  She put her foot in the loop beside his, and put her arms around his neck.  He mimicked Mark and held the rope in one hand and her waist with his other arm.  When the people at the top were sure that they were ready, the rope jerked and they began moving up.  When they were about halfway up, she weakly put her head on his shoulder. 

"Are you okay?" he asked. 

"Just tired," she said quietly. 

"Well, you can't go to sleep.  You've lost too much blood.  Besides, since when does the indomitable Captain Janeway require sleep?" 

She chuckled softly despite herself. "Since I've been kidnapped, tortured and, most recently, stabbed.  If I ever try to pull another all-nighter, remind me about today." 

"Like you'll listen," he said, then became serious. "If I ever take you for granted, remind me about today."

She raised her head slightly, surprised, and saw the concern in his eyes. 

"You have no idea how terrified I was when I saw you bleeding earlier. Don't _ever do that to me again." _

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded and put her head back on his shoulder.  They soon reached the surface, and they were helped up before the rope was thrown down for Tom, Jarel, and Nathan to climb up.  When they reached the top, the senior officers surveyed their surroundings to decide where to go.  As each new group had come to the surface, they had moved to a small rocky outgrowth not too far away, so they were concealed from the building that housed the guards.  The group that had just arrived moved towards this shelter as they discussed where to go.  Lieutenant Oren jogged up to where they were gathered.  She and three of the Yukon crew had been scouting the area. 

"There's a ravine about ten minutes in that direction," she said, pointing.  "It should give us some protection from these windstorms, and it might keep us from being spotted if we're pursued." 

"We would also be trapped in it if we were pursued," pointed out Mark. 

"We won't be trapped if they can't see us," she insisted. "If we're out of sight they'll just move on and keep looking." 

"If they know about the gorge, they'll suspect that thet's where we'll go," said Chakotay. 

"It's worth the risk," said Talia vehemently. "How long do you think we can last in these winds? And from the looks of this terrain, they're only going to get worse. Besides," she added in a calmer voice, "The walls aren't that steep and we could get out if we had to. We could have a few people walk along the top to keep a lookout, as well." 

They agreed that it was the best suggestion so far, and the group of forty moved in the direction Talia indicated.

They were not able to walk along the ravine for more that a couple of hours before the sun dipped on the horizon and it began to get dark.  Deciding that it was dangerous to make their way along the unknown territory in the dark with no flashlights, they found a small sheltered area and set down for the night.  Chakotay found some dry vegetation, and, after borrowing a few strands of hair from some of the women, got a fire started the old-fashioned way so they could conserve the power in their weapons.  He moved back to where the Captain was sitting while others added more fuel to the fire and used it to start a couple more.

"You're getting much better at that," she said with a small grin as he approached. "I remember when it used to take you hours to get a fire started." 

"It's all in the wrists," he chuckled. "And the hair." 

He noticed her shiver and moved with her to one of the fires that was now going strong.  They sat side by side against the rocky wall in a dark corner near the fire.  After a few minutes of sitting by the fire, Chakotay noticed that she was still shivering, so he pulled her over towards him so that she was sitting in between his legs with her back leaning on his chest.  She leaned her head on his shoulder and turned on her side so that she could see his face.  He wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her arms to keep her warm.

They noticed Tom walking around the group, making sure that everyone was as comfortable as possible, and Chakotay commented quietly, "What I wouldn't give to be back on Voyager right now."

The similarity to her own words what seemed like an eternity ago struck her and she looked up at him in surprise.

"That surprises you?" he asked, confused by her expression.

"No, I feel the same."  She took a deep breath and looked down at the ground.  "I just realized that I…when we thought you were dead, I said something to B'Elanna that…"

It was unusual for her to be at a loss for words, and he squeezed her closer to him in encouragement for her to continue.

That gesture was all she needed to be able to go on.  "I never really told you how…how devastated I was when we thought you had died. I felt lost, alone, abandoned…" She looked at him again and he saw a tear roll down her cheek.  "I regretted never telling you how much you mean to me…I felt as though I had lost a part of myself.  I couldn't imagine going on without you," she finished in a whisper.

He reached his hand over to her face and brushed the tear away with his thumb. 

"You don't have to," he said softly, and leaned forward to gently brush his lips against hers.  She put her hand on the back of his head and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss.  When they broke apart, she kissed his hand that was on her face still and nuzzled into his shoulder, falling asleep.  At first, Tom had wanted to keep her awake but he had eventually decided that they couldn't do that indefinitely and had told Chakotay that if she drifted off to let her sleep.  Chakotay brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face, and leaned his head back against the rock, soon asleep as well. 

Tom glanced over at his two commanding officers and his eyes widened.  The Captain was curled up in Chakotay's arms, and was sleeping with her head on his shoulder. _It's about time, he thought. __I guess being stranded alone in a prison cell for six weeks did what being stranded on Voyager for six years couldn't.  He chuckled softly to himself and continued making the rounds._

*    *    *

The first thing Chakotay was aware of when Tom shook him awake at first light was Kathryn's head still on his shoulder. 

"Sleep well?" asked Tom with a mischievous grin. 

"Not bad," mumbled Chakotay.  He looked over at Kathryn and became alarmed at the pallor of her face.  He shook her gently to wake her, but she didn't respond.  Touching her face, it felt cold and clammy.  He and Tom looked at each other in alarm, but her eyes fluttered open a few seconds later before they began to panic. 

"Good morning," she whispered.  She felt too weak to even lift her head off Chakotay's shoulder, and just wanted to go back to sleep. 

Tom felt her pulse and turned to Chakotay.  "I think we should try to keep her awake from now on. Her pulse is slower today, and she's probably going into shock from the blood loss.  If she falls asleep again we might not be able to wake her up." 

Chakotay nodded.  He put his arm under Kathryn's knees and stood up carrying her in his arms.  Her head was still on his shoulder, and she had her arms folded limply in front of her with her hand resting on his chest. 

The group moved off down the ravine again, trying to put as much distance between them and the guard station as possible.  Chakotay tried to keep Kathryn talking at first, but she was too weak to do much more than mumble at him, so he talked instead, trying to keep her alert and listening. 

They had been walking for about an hour when Chakotay saw Seven, who was walking a few meters ahead of him, stop in her tracks and tilt her head. 

"Seven? What is it?" said Mark, who was walking beside her. 

She turned around to Chakotay and the Captain and announced, "I am receiving a transmission through my cranial implant."  They looked at her in surprise. 

"It's from Voyager.  They have located us and will arrive at our position within hours." 

Everyone around her stood for a few seconds in shock before the news sunk in.  Mark and Tom walked off to spread the good news, and Chakotay turned to Kathryn. He noticed that her eyes were closed.  "Kathryn?"

Her eyes slowly fluttered open.  "Hm?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Voyager's coming for us.  They'll be here soon.  You're going to be all right."

The corners of her mouth turned up in a smile, but it slowly faded.  "It's cold," she mumbled.

"You're going into shock, Kathryn.  You have to stay awake, understand?  You have to keep talking to me."

She nodded, but her eyes closed slowly.  After a moment, she opened them again and looked at him with more alertness than she had shown over the past few hours.  "I'm sorry," she whispered, moving her hand that was on his chest.

He frowned.  "For what?"

"For us."

"Don't start talking like that," he said, concerned at the direction her thoughts were taking.  "We'll have you fixed up in Sickbay before you know it."

"I want you to know I…" her voice trailed off, and her eyes rolled back in her head.  

"Kathryn?"  Her head rolled limply against his shoulder when he shook her.  "Kathryn?" he repeated, more urgently.

She was unresponsive.

A few minutes later, Tom came over at Chakotay's request to check on her, but as he suspected Tom said that there was nothing they could do for her.  Moving away from them, Tom fell into step beside Seven. 

"Is there any way that you can send a message back to Voyager?" 

"I do not believe so," she replied. "I do not have the necessary equipment to modify my neural transceiver to send a transmission." 

"They probably scanned for your cortical implant frequency, right?" When she nodded, he continued, "Is there any way that we could alter the frequency momentarily, like for a second or two?" 

She thought for a moment. "I believe that it would be possible to alter it slightly.  For what purpose?" 

"Because if Harry's monitoring it, I can send him a message." 

"You will need to modify my cranial implant," she said. 

"We'll need something to…" He noticed a young woman walking not too far away from them.  He recognized her as Amanda Harding, the fiancée of the injured Crewman Briggs who had been on the Yukon with him.  She had long blond hair that was intricately twisted at the back of her head. 

"Amanda!" he yelled, walking over to her. "Do you by any chance have a pin in your hair?" 

She nodded and, reaching behind her head, extracted a long bobby pin from her hair.  Grabbing it, Tom thanked her and walked back over to Seven. 

"Will this work?" 

"Crude, but effective," she conceded. 

"I'm not sure I can do this while I walk," he said, and he called for the group to stop and take a break.  He and Seven sat down on the ground and she told him what to do to alter the frequency of her Borg implants.  Using the bobby pin on the starburst implant on her cheek, he began tapping in uneven intervals as a grin spread across his face.

*    *    *

On Voyager, Harry was sitting at Ops trying to determine Seven's exact location on the planet's surface.  While he was calculating, he noticed a brief but slight shift in the frequency of her cranial implant.  It was just a flash, but it was quickly followed by three more.  After a short pause, there were two more short shifts, and then a slightly longer one.  Harry furrowed his brow, completely puzzled.  He wondered if she was injured, but there almost seemed to be a pattern to the frequency shifts.  There was now a short burst, then a longer one, and then a shorter one again, and then that sequence of three repeated itself.  After another pause, another sequence began and his eyes widened as he muttered to himself. "Long, short, long, long." 

"Ensign?" said Tuvok, turning around in his chair. 

"Morse code!" he exclaimed. "Tom's sending a message using Seven's cranial implants." 

"What is it?" said B'Elanna, jumping up from the engineering station and running over to Ops. 

Harry frowned as he slowly decoded the message. "Hurry…need medical assistance…we have located the Captain…" Every face on the bridge, even Tuvok's, lit up with that news, and Harry continued. "…and more Starfleet crew…Captain Proton out."

*    *    *

The senior officers in the group had decided that it was pointless to exhaust themselves when their rescue was imminent.  They had continued walking for about an hour after Seven's message, stopping only so Tom could try and send a reply, but they had eventually decided that they were far enough away to avoid capture by the guards if they pursued them.  Just to be sure, they had posted lookouts and Mark was mentally on the watch for anybody approaching.

Two and a half hours after Harry had received the message from Tom, Voyager was within visual range of the planet. 

"I'm reading two Vaadwaur ships on long-range sensors," reported Harry. "We'll have to get out of here quick as soon as we get them off the surface." 

"Have you located them?" asked Tuvok. 

"I'm reading…over _forty humanoids on one of the northern subcontinents.  Our people are in that group." _

"Send Security to transporter room two and begin beaming them to Voyager."

Seven was the first one to know that Voyager had arrived.  As soon as he sent Security to the transporter room, Harry sent another message to her to alert her of their imminent rescue. 

"Voyager is in orbit," she announced. "They are preparing to begin transporting us." 

Chakotay looked at Kathryn. _Not a moment too soon, he thought.  Her face was completely ashen, and she was still unconscious.  Her pulse was getting weaker by the minute, and although he had changed her bandage once it was already soaked through with blood again. _

Small groups of people began disappearing in a blue shimmer all around him.  He squeezed the inert form in his arms closer to his body, silently begging her to hold on just a little longer.  After what seemed an eternity, he was engulfed in the familiar blue glow of the transporter beam and the welcome surroundings of Voyager's transporter room appeared.  The small room was crowded, and officers were herding groups of people out the door to clear the transporter pad after each group. 

Tom, who had been beamed up in one of the previous groups, was helping to direct the traffic, determining who should go to Sickbay immediately and who could wait.  When he saw Chakotay materialize with the Captain, he jumped up on the platform and yelled at Ensign Lang at the transporter controls. "The Captain's critically injured – beam us directly to Sickbay!" 

They dematerialized again and reappeared in Sickbay.  Crewman Briggs was sitting on a biobed and the Doctor was using an osteoregenerator on his wounded ankle.  They didn't immediately notice the transport.

"Doc!" yelled Tom to get his attention. "We need help with the Captain!" Seeing her lifeless form in Chakotay's arms, the Doctor rushed over as Tom and Chakotay lifted her onto the nearest biobed. 

"She has a stab wound to the upper abdomen and she's lost a lot of blood.  She may be in shock," reported Tom as he grabbed a medical tricorder and handed it to the Doctor. 

"How long has she been unconscious?" 

Chakotay closed his eyes so he could think straight. "About three hours, but off and on before that." 

The Doctor examined her with a frown.  "There's massive internal hemorrhaging.  She's got a ruptured spleen and it looks like there's some kidney damage."  The monitors on the bed began to beep furiously and alarms went off on the tricorders. 

"What is it?" asked Chakotay, and he grabbed Kathryn's hand. 

"Her blood pressure's falling!" yelled the Doctor. "70 over 40 and dropping.  Ten milligrams cordrazine!"

Tom handed him the hypospray and he applied it to the Captain. 

"It didn't help," reported Tom. "Her neural activity is decreasing too – 47 percent and falling." 

"Cortical stimulator!" ordered the Doctor.  Tom handed him the piece of equipment and the Doctor secured it to her forehead.  "Begin with 40 millijoules," he ordered. 

The alarms continued undaunted. "Increase to 60 millijoules." 

Tom shook his head in frustration. "No effect – neural activity at 38 percent." 

"70 millijoules!  Twenty milligrams cordrazine." He took the hypospray from Tom and applied it to her neck.  The alarms on the biobed were finally silenced and were replaced by the rhythmic beeping of her heartbeat. 

"Her neural activity is stabilizing," said Tom, relieved. "Blood pressure 90 over 50 and rising." 

Chakotay closed his eyes and sighed with relief.  That had been way too close for comfort, and she wasn't out of the woods yet. 

"She's stable for now," the Doctor was saying to Tom, "but she'll need surgery for the internal injuries.  We'll prep her as soon as we're finished with any other major cases." 

"I don't think there will be any," Tom told him.  "Briggs' ankle was the worst injury, besides the Captain.  You should take a look at Seven when you get the chance, though – she got an electrical shock and was unconscious for a long time." 

The Doctor nodded and began examining the Captain further.  His eyes widened as he looked at the readings on his tricorder. 

"Her norepinephrine levels are over _fifteen times the normal level," he said in amazement.  He noticed the scars on her face and arms and frowned.  "That would explain it - it looks like this isn't the first injury she's sustained," he said as he scanned her with a tricorder. _

Without taking his eyes off her, Chakotay told the Doctor what he would find. "She has two, maybe three broken ribs on her left side, multiple head traumas, probably a concussion."  The Doctor's eyes widened as he scanned her and confirmed Chakotay's assessment of her injuries as he continued. "She has second-degree burns on her left arm and face, and her right arm is broken in two places." 

"Eight, actually," said the Doctor quietly. "There is a series of smaller fractures between the two major breaks.  And it looks like they've been set." 

Chakotay nodded. "I tried to set them so they could heal faster.  We didn't know about the smaller fractures." 

"How did this happen?" asked the Doctor as he reached for an osteoregenerator. 

"She let the Vaadwaur who was interrogating us grind his foot into her arm so he would believe me when I gave him fake information." He closed his eyes to try and shut out the image of her writhing on the floor in pain. "I heard the bone snap under his foot," he added quietly. 

The Doctor and Tom stood and looked at him in mute horror.  They were distracted from their train of thought when the doors to Sickbay opened and B'Elanna rushed in.  Tom saw her and stepped away from Kathryn to embrace his wife.  They stood in each other's arms for a few seconds before B'Elanna pulled away and hit him on the chest. 

"Don't _ever do anything like that again!" Despite her pretense, her voice wasn't as angry as usual, and all the vehemence in her expression evaporated when she saw Chakotay.  She broke into a smile and stepped away from Tom to give Chakotay an affectionate hug. _

He looked down at her belly with raised eyebrows. "I guess I've been gone longer than I thought," he said with a grin. 

She gave him a good-humored whack on the arm. "Too long for me.  Good to have you back, Chakotay."  Her face clouded over and she paled when she saw the Captain laying on the biobed.  "Is she going to be all right?" she asked Tom as he came and stood beside her, putting his hands on her shoulders. 

"She's in pretty bad shape and she'll need some surgery, but she'll pull through." 

The Doctor interrupted. "Mr. Paris, we should begin.  There will be plenty of time to catch up later." 

Tom kissed his wife on the cheek and moved towards the bed to assist the Doctor, and B'Elanna took Chakotay by the arm and pulled him out the door to let them work.

*    *    *

Sickbay was dark when B'Elanna entered later that night.  In the dim lighting, she could see Chakotay slouched in a chair next to a biobed where the Captain lay.  He was sitting about halfway down the bed across from the displays that were monitoring her vital signs.  She looked much better than when she had first been brought on board – her worn and dirty uniform had been replaced by a crisp, clean aqua Sickbay gown, and her cheeks had more color in them. 

"Shouldn't you be getting some rest?" said B'Elanna quietly.  He looked up at her, startled, before turning his attention back to the sleeping form in front of him. 

"I don't think I could sleep," he said. "I'd rather stay here." 

"I figured as much," she said. "Here." She walked over and handed him a blanket that she was carrying.

He chuckled. "Thanks." He held the blanket on his lap but didn't open it. 

B'Elanna pulled up a chair and sat next to him.  "Tom said she'd be fine, Chakotay.  You really should get some rest." 

Chakotay reached out and ran his finger along the display of her heartbeat on the monitor in front of him. "I know that she'll be fine. It's just…so many times I've watched her sleep and been afraid that she wouldn't wake up again.  It's hard to get over that fear." 

She reached out and put her hand on his knee. "Chakotay…It must have been awful." 

"What they did to her…I can't stop thinking about it.  I watched as they broke her bones and I couldn't do anything.  They used some kind of synaptic stimulation device that was…indescribable pain.  She would be unconscious for hours after that…" He trailed off, unable to continue. 

"You're both safe now," B'Elanna assured him after a minute. 

"I don't even want to think about what would have happened if Voyager hadn't found us when you did.  She was so pale, so cold…"

B'Elanna squeezed his knee reassuringly, encouraging him to let it out. "When I close my eyes," continued Chakotay, "I can still see her hand covered with blood as she pulled it away from her…I've never been more terrified in my life."  Chakotay turned back to the heartbeat on the monitors and stared at it until B'Elanna gave a soft gasp.  He turned to her and saw that her hand was on her belly. 

"What?" he asked her, concerned. 

"She's kicking," she told him with a smile. "Here." She slid her chair closer to his and took his hand, pressing it to her belly to feel her child kicking inside.  He looked at it in awe, and then smiled as he looked up at her face. 

"She's as strong as her mother."

B'Elanna smiled and ran her hands over her swollen abdomen. "Miral, say hello to Chakotay.  He's an old friend of mine." 

"You decided on Miral?" 

She nodded. "After we thought the Captain had died, Tom and I were talking about it.  He suggested naming her after the Captain, but I wanted to use Miral, because you and Kathryn both liked it." 

She looked up at him and saw that he was looking at her with a look of surprise and amusement. 

"What?" she asked. 

"Nothing.  I was just surprised to hear you call her that." 

It took B'Elanna a moment to realize what he was referring to – her using the Captain's first name. 

"You'd be surprised at a lot of things," she told him with a knowing smile.  "Listen, I really should get back to my quarters.  If Tom finds out that I'm wandering around the ship at this time of night, he'll make the Doctor put me on restricted duty.  Get some rest, Chakotay." 

With that, she left him alone with the still sleeping Captain.

*    *    *

Before Captain Janeway opened her eyes, she could hear hushed but agitated voices near her.  She couldn't identify them at first, but then she recognized the urgent tone of the Doctor, followed by Chakotay's tired but insistent voice.  She couldn't make out what they were saying, and slowly forced her eyes open.  She saw the roof of Sickbay above her and relaxed with relief – she was back on Voyager.  She slowly turned her head in the direction of the voices and saw the Doctor with his back to her facing Commander Chakotay and Commander Walker. 

"I'll call you as soon as she's awake," the Doctor was telling Chakotay.  "You need to get some rest, Commander." 

"I'm fine," he insisted. "I want to be here when she wakes up." 

They were intent on their conversation and didn't notice that she was awake.  Mark, with his empathic abilities, sensed her come to and made eye contact with her over the Doctor's shoulder.  He cleared his throat, but they ignored him, still arguing. 

"Doctor," he said, touching the hologram's arm.   

When they continued arguing with each other, he met Kathryn's gaze again and rolled his eyes with a shrug.  He stepped around the Doctor and moved over to her bed. 

"They'll be done in a minute, I'm sure," he said with a chuckle.  She didn't answer but smiled at him. 

When Mark spoke, the Doctor and Chakotay finally stopped bickering and looked at the bed.  When they saw that she was awake, they joined him beside her. 

"Welcome back, Captain," said the Doctor with a beaming smile. "How are you feeling?" 

"Not bad, considering how I felt the last time I was awake," she said softly. 

"Well, we had a few close calls, but you're going to make a complete recovery.  I repaired the damage from the stab wound, and also took care of some of your previous injuries, namely your broken bones and the scars from your burns."  He stopped his bragging for a moment and became serious.  "And quite frankly, Captain, I'm amazed that you were able to endure as well as you did, given the extent of those injuries."

"So am I," she groaned, trying to sit up. 

Chakotay put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down.  "Take it easy.  You're not going to be up and around for a while yet." 

"I've already been away for almost two months – it's time I got back to my ship," she insisted weakly. 

"Absolutely not," the Doctor objected. "I'm not letting you on duty for at least another week." 

Biting back a retort, she glared at him instead and started trying to figure out who could smuggle in crew reports for her.  Not Chakotay, but maybe B'Elanna.  Or Seven – yes, Seven would definitely be a good accomplice.  She would understand that it was inefficient for her to sit uselessly around Sickbay doing nothing when she had two months of catching up to do.  Remembering that Mark was standing beside her, she tried to suppress the thought before he picked it up.  Chakotay, however, knew her well and didn't need to be telepathic. 

"Don't even think about it," he told her, crossing his arms. 

"What?" she said, feigning innocence.  He paused, trying to decide if she was lying or not. 

"You heard him, Kathryn," said Mark, and she knew by the poorly concealed grin on his face that he knew exactly what she had been thinking.  She favored him with one of her most vicious glares, but when he stubbornly refused to combust on the spot, she growled and crossed her arms. "Fine," she said bitterly.  Maybe bringing Mark on board had been a mistake, she thought to herself with a smile.  It was bad enough having Chakotay around to see right through her, but now there were two of them.


	7. The Aftermath

DISCLAIMER:   You all know the drill - Paramount is God.  All hail Paramount.  They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go.  All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish).

SUMMARY: Back on Voyager, Chakotay and Kathryn must deal with the repercussions of their imprisonment and escape.

THE LONG ROAD HOME

SEPARATIONS

CHAPTER SEVEN : THE AFTERMATH

Chakotay was in his quarters looking out the window.  His living area was almost completely bare since it had been cleaned out months before.  About the only thing left was the furniture – the walls and shelves were empty and it hardly felt like his quarters.  The lack of personalization in his surroundings made him feel isolated for some reason, and he was about to call B'Elanna to see if she was busy when his door chime rang. 

"Come in," he called, and B'Elanna entered, towing a storage container in each arm. 

"Speak of the devil," he said with a grin. 

"Hello to you too," she replied, giving him a strange look.  "I brought your things by.  I thought you might want them back." 

"You didn't recycle anything?" 

"Some of it," she told him, as she sat down on the couch with the containers in front of her. "But I couldn't bring myself to get rid of most of your junk."  She helped him unpack the first container and they started on the second one.  Since she had been the one to pack his belongings, she remembered where most of it went and slowly helped him redecorate his quarters.  When they were nearly finished the second container, he frowned as he looked at what little remained to be unpacked. 

"You didn't keep my medicine bundle?" he said, surprised. 

"Of course I did." She leaned forward to rifle through the bottom of the container. "It should be here…that's odd. I wonder where…" She broke off and the corners of her mouth turned up. "Uh…never mind. I know where it is.  It's still in my quarters." 

"There's more of my things in your quarters?" 

"No," she said evasively. "Just the medicine bundle…maybe a few small items." 

He could tell that there was something that she wasn't telling him.  He stared at her incessantly until she finally broke down. 

"All right," she sighed. "It's in my quarters…with the Captain's things." 

That took him by surprise. "What?" 

"I gave it to her after your memorial service.  She asked me if she could have it, so I gave it to her." 

He sat for a moment in silence.  Her wanting to keep something that had been so important to him spoke volumes about what she felt for him.  He tried to shake the thought off, but it was persistent.  Would she have kept his medicine bundle if she felt nothing more for him than friendship?  He didn't think so, but he hated to get his hopes up just so they could be dashed yet again.  She had been overcome when she had seen him for the first time on the Vaadwaur ship, but that could have been just the joy of finding that her closest friend was alive after all.  He remembered the look in her eyes the day they had given Takken the information, but he was beginning to wonder if he had imagined that.  But then there was what she had said the night they had escaped the prison.  Maybe she had just been delusional, he reasoned.  That was probably why she had kissed him back.  She probably didn't even remember it.  He was distracted from his racing thoughts when something B'Elanna said caught his attention. 

"I didn't think you'd mind if she kept something that personal," she was saying. "I felt really bad for her – she just wanted something to remember her Angry Warrior by." 

"What did you say?" he asked, not believing his ears. 

"I said she probably just wanted something to remember you by," she said, immediately catching her involuntary slip. 

"That's not what you said." He leaned towards her, and B'Elanna shifted uncomfortably.  "You called me her Angry Warrior. I want to know how you knew about that." 

She was silent, and managed to avoid his gaze for a few minutes until she finally looked up at him. 

"B'Elanna?" he prompted. 

"She told me, okay?" B'Elanna sighed. She knew the Captain was very private about some things, this in particular, and probably wouldn't appreciate her telling this to Chakotay.  _It's for her own good, thought B'Elanna, and she proceeded to elaborate. _

"I met up with her one night and she was reading the message that you left for her." 

Chakotay stiffened.  He had forgotten about the message – and it's implications.  He hadn't considered how she would react to him after she had read that.  He was forced to ignore the thought, though, as B'Elanna continued. 

"She let me read it – don't worry, not all of it," she added when Chakotay looked up at her sharply, "And at the end you told her that her Angry Warrior would always be with her." 

He relaxed a little, thinking that she didn't know the whole truth after all. The relief didn't last for long, because B'Elanna wasn't finished yet. 

"I asked her about the reference, and she didn't tell me right then – but one night when I came to her quarters I reminded her about it and she told me the legend that you told her." 

"She told you?" Chakotay was completely shocked.  Kathryn rarely mentioned their time on New Earth to him, although she would make vague references occasionally, so he found it hard to believe that she would bring it up with anybody else.  Especially something as personal as what he had told her that night. 

"I wasn't even sure she remembered it," he whispered. "She never mentioned it again." 

"Remembered it? Chakotay – she repeated it word for word without missing a beat." She leaned forward and put her hand on his arm, looking him in the eye. "She _cried, Chakotay.  In almost seven years I have __never seen Captain Janeway lose control.  When she told me that it wasn't really a legend, she cried." _

He looked at her even harder. "She told you _what?"_

"That it wasn't really a legend from your people.  Come on, Chakotay, even I could see that – before she told me." 

He sat in silence, trying to process what he had heard.  She had remembered the story, obviously in great detail.  He had thought at the time from her reaction to it that it had touched her deeply, but when she had never mentioned it again and had made it clear that she would not pursue any kind of relationship, he had begun to doubt himself.  Her reaction to repeating the story, however, would seem to indicate that it had meant a great deal to her – she just hadn't let herself show it.  If she had been affected enough to cry in front of B'Elanna, then it must have been pretty bad. 

He remembered again what she had said the night before they were rescued – how devastated she had been when he had 'died.'  Maybe it was more than he had convinced himself; maybe if she realized what she had almost lost, then she would…

His thoughts were interrupted when B'Elanna got up to leave.  He started to see her to the door, but before they reached it, she turned to face him. 

"I know that you've probably convinced yourself that you don't have a chance with her," she told him, "But you didn't see her when she realized that you were gone.  She looked as if her life had been stolen from her, like she had lost her reason for being. Talk to her – you might be pleasantly surprised." With that, she patted his arm and walked out the door before he had a chance to respond.

*    *    *

Captain Janeway took a deep breath as she straightened her uniform and adjusted the collar of her turtleneck for the umpteenth time.  The Doctor had finally cleared her for limited bridge duty a week after their rescue, and she was in the turbolift on her way to the bridge for the beginning of alpha shift.  The lift stopped and the doors slid open to reveal the welcome but slightly unfamiliar sight of the bridge.  It felt strange stepping out of the turbolift for the first time in almost two months, but the feeling soon passed and she felt right at home. 

Tuvok stood up at his station when she exited the turbolift.  "Captain on the bridge," he announced formally.  All heads turned towards the turbolift with smiles on their faces, and every officer on the bridge stood up to acknowledge her.  The gesture nearly moved her to tears.  It felt incredibly good to be back where she belonged, with her crew.  Most of her senior staff was present – Tom and Harry were at their usual stations, Seven was standing behind Janeway's chair, and Chakotay was standing in front of his chair.

"As you were," she said, in a voice cracking with emotion, but nobody moved very far.  She made her way down the stairs and walked towards her chair where Chakotay was waiting.  He smiled at her and she slowly lowered herself into her chair, feeling its familiar contours as she settled into it.  As soon as she was seated, everybody on the bridge returned to their stations but they were still looking at her. 

"Status, Mr. Paris." 

"We're on course for the Alpha Quadrant at warp 7," he reported. "All systems are nominal." 

She smiled and leaned back in her chair.  She looked over at Chakotay and saw that he was smiling too.  She extended her hand towards his chair, and he took it and held it for a few seconds before he released it and they faced the viewscreen again. 

"All-stop, Mr. Paris," she ordered. "Hold our position for now, at least until after this morning's briefing."

"Yes, ma'am." He entered the commands and then swiveled his chair around to face her. "It's good to have you back, Captain." 

She acknowledged him with a smile and a nod. _It's good to be back, she thought. _

Fifteen minutes later, the Captain was seated at the head of the conference table.  Besides the usual senior staff, Commander Walker and Lieutenant Oren were present to discuss the search for the Yukon.

Talia and Seven were standing in front of a display on the conference room wall and were showing a navigational chart to the rest of the crew. 

"Stardate 54281," began Seven. "The Yukon is pulled into the Delta quadrant, approximately 500 light years from Voyager's position."  A small blinking icon appeared on the chart to indicate Voyager's position, and another blinking icon appeared directly below it.  "Here is Voyager's current position, approximately 200 light years from the Yukon." Another icon appeared below the other two, and a line connected Voyager's two positions.  The icon indicating the Yukon was very close to this line, but not directly on it.

"Fortunately," said Talia, "Any of the crew who had warp capability, in a shuttle or otherwise, would have set a course for the Alpha quadrant, which puts the search area directly in front of us." 

"What about anyone who might have been in escape pods?" asked Tom. 

"They couldn't have survived long alone," said Talia. "They would have had to find an M-class planet, but Seven says that there aren't any close enough to the site of the attack for them to have made it." 

"Not only that, the Vaadwaur claim that they destroyed all the survivors," said Mark grimly. 

"Unfortunately, we have found evidence to corroborate that claim," said Seven. "Two months ago, just before the Captain was abducted, Voyager altered course to investigate a class-Y cluster.  While on course, we detected multiple warp core resonance traces from a ship and a series of smaller vessels that had been destroyed.  I have since analyzed it, and have determined that the signature is Starfleet.  It was most likely debris from the Yukon and the destroyed escape pods and shuttles, since it was very near the coordinates that Commander Walker gave as the last position of the Yukon." 

"Fine," said Janeway disappointedly.  "I guess it's pointless to turn around, but I still want to keep looking.  Seven, see if you can boost the range of the Astrometrics sensors and use them to scan for any Starfleet warp signatures.  Now, is there anything else?" 

Neelix spoke up.  "The Wysanti have indicated a spaceport where they can arrange for a transport to take them back home.  It would only be a detour of about four days." 

She nodded.  "Tom, when you get the coordinates, set a course.  Anything else?" 

"We'll have to find duty assignments for the Yukon crew," said Chakotay.  "Not to mention quarters." 

"I'll leave that to you and Commander Walker," she said.  She had decided to make Mark next in command after Chakotay, although she had consulted with Tuvok first, not wanting to offend him.  He had agreed that his primary obligation was as chief of security, and since he and Commander Walker were of the same rank, he had no objection to Mark having seniority since he was an experienced command officer. 

"If that's all?"  Heads nodded around the table.  "Dismissed."

*    *    *

"I assigned Ensign Martens to the Science lab at her request, and Crewman Seitz volunteered to work in the hydroponics bay since he has some experience in horticulture." 

Captain Janeway nodded as she went over the PADD and listened to Chakotay. 

"What do you think of having Talia head up Gamma shift?" she asked Mark. 

He thought about it for a few seconds. "She's a good officer.  I think that she could do it.  I trust her completely – my only reservation about her is that she sometimes errs on the wrong side of caution.  She can be quite a risk taker." 

"So I've noticed, but on this ship, that's part of the job.  I'm sure we can straighten her out if we need to," said the Captain with a smile. 

"It means Harry will have to give up the big chair," Chakotay pointed out. "He likes running the Gamma shift." 

"I'm sure we can work something out.  Now, what about quarters?" 

"We don't have to find space for as many people as we originally thought," Mark told her. "Shawn Briggs and Amanda Harding are engaged, so they're sharing quarters.  They'll probably be asking you to do the honors before long, by the way." He consulted his PADD.  "Talia and Nathan have also said they'll move in together, much to my surprise.  I guess a lot went on between them when I wasn't around – I had no idea they were involved." 

"It's interesting how many couples from Voyager suddenly decided to share quarters, too," said Chakotay. "I've had three offers in the past two days alone for people to double up." 

"Who?" asked the Captain, curious. 

He consulted his PADD. "Uh…Ensign Larson and Ensign Brooks." 

She nodded, glad to feel that she knew what was going on with her crew. "I've seen them in the mess hall together quite a few times." 

"Lieutenant Hargrove and Ensign Harper," continued Chakotay. 

"I heard Neelix mention something about that." 

"And Ensign Parsons and Ensign Sharr." 

"That one's news to me.  Well, at least it frees up some living space." 

"We shouldn't have a problem assigning quarters for the rest of the Yukon crew," agreed Chakotay. 

They were interrupted when Neelix came over to their table with a pot of coffee.  He poured the Captain some without having to ask her while he offered some to her two companions. 

"Coffee would be great, Neelix," said Mark as he proffered his cup. "It's been over six months since I've had caffeine flowing through my veins." 

"Hear, hear," said the Captain as she lifted her mug. 

When Neelix had poured Chakotay a cup as well, he turned back to Captain Janeway. 

"Captain, I was thinking of putting together a sort of welcome party for the Yukon crew.  And for you and Commander Chakotay as well, of course – that's certainly something to celebrate." 

"Sounds wonderful, Neelix.  I look forward to it."

*    *    *

Captain Janeway looked around the mess hall in satisfaction.  A large contingent of Voyager's crew was here for Neelix's party, and it was noisy and crowded.  Neelix was going around passing out champagne to everybody, having a ball. 

She picked up a spoon and tapped her champagne flute to get the crowd's attention, and everyone turned towards her.  The twelve crewmembers from the Yukon were standing on her left, looking much better than when she had first met them.  Mark was standing closest to her, followed by Talia, Nathan, and Jarel, and beside them were the other eight.  The two civilians among them had asked permission to serve as crewmen, so all twelve were in uniform.  Kathryn had to shake off the bad memories that arose from the scene – this was what she had been doing two years ago with the Equinox crew.  _This is completely different, she told herself, and tried to shake off the memory. _

She raised her hand for silence, and the room hushed. "We're here today to celebrate new beginnings, and new friends.  We've lost many good people over the course of our journey, but today we've gained some."  She turned to the Yukon crew standing beside her. "On behalf of everyone on board, I'd like to welcome you all to Voyager…to our family.  I'm sure that you will all be an invaluable addition to my crew as we make our way home."  She raised her champagne glass. "To the journey – and to those who aren't here to share it with us." 

The assembled crew echoed her toast, and shouts of "Hear, hear," were heard around the room. 

When it was quiet again, Talia raised her glass. "And here's to sonic showers, hot meals, and warm beds," she announced, drawing laughs from around the room. 

Kathryn was about to continue when Tom Paris stepped forward and raised his glass. 

"And let's not forget the other reason we're all here today.  To our commanding officers – it's good to have you back where you belong." 

The cries of "Hear, hear" were louder this time, and many of the crew applauded.  The Captain smiled at their devotion and stole a sideways glance at Chakotay, who was standing beside her.  He was looking at her as well with a smile on his face.  He raised his glass in her direction, and she returned the gesture before she addressed the gathered crew again. 

"I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your efforts in rescuing Commander Chakotay and I.  You all showed a courage and dedication far beyond even what I've come to expect over the past six and a half years.  It's an honor to serve as your Captain." 

The crew applauded again, and when it was obvious she was finished, the crew dispersed and began to mingle. 

After moving around the room for a while, the Captain saw something that caught her attention – Mark talking to Seven.  She had never seen Seven looking so relaxed in a social situation, although 'relaxed' was a relative term where the ex-drone was concerned.  When she drew closer to them, she could overhear what they were talking about – Mark was telling her about the wormhole that had brought the Yukon to the Delta Quadrant. 

"The fluctuations at the quantum level were extremely erratic.  I've never seen anything like it." 

"The Borg have previously encountered such a phenomenon, in spatial grid 2-4-7," she said. "They are extremely volatile and unstable anomalies." 

"I wish we'd known that before we got pulled through it."  He sighed, but then he smiled. "But exploring the Delta quadrant…it's an incredible opportunity.  It's just a shame that so many people didn't make it this far." 

Realizing what he was thinking, the Captain reached over and squeezed his arm.  Seven also figured out what was on his mind. 

"You miss your daughter," she observed, and he nodded.  She paused, searching for something appropriate to say.  "Perhaps she survived the destruction of the Yukon.  If so, I am sure the feeling is mutual."  She saw Harry and Jarel trying to get her attention, so she excused herself and walked over to them. 

The Captain watched her leave with a maternal pride, amazed at how far she had come in her social interactions. 

"Amazing." 

Startled out of her thoughts, she turned back to Commander Walker. 

"I'm sorry?" 

"Seven – she's amazing.  I can't believe she was only freed from the collective a few years ago.  I never thought anyone assimilated at such a young age could ever be rehabilitated." 

She turned back and watched Seven from across the room.  "Believe me, it hasn't been easy…for her or for us.  But she's made incredible progress." 

Turning her eyes away from Seven, she saw Chakotay watching her from across the room but avoided his gaze.  They hadn't really had a chance to talk since their rescue – at least not in private.  She knew she was going to have to deal with it sooner or later, and she sighed.  She wasn't sure how she was going to proceed, and that was always something that disturbed her. 

It had taken Chakotay this long after his conversation with B'Elanna – over a week –  to get up the nerve to talk with Kathryn.  He had seen her on duty and a few times around the ship, of course, but they had never talked for long and they had mostly discussed how the rest of the group that had been rescued was doing.

He watched her from across the room, trying to get her attention.  Every time he tried to go over to speak with her, either somebody wanted to talk to him or she started up a conversation with someone before he reached her. 

After about an hour, he saw her go to leave, and he excused himself and followed her out the mess hall and down the hallway. 

"Kathryn," he called after her, and she stopped and waited for him to catch up.  "Calling it a night?" he asked. 

She nodded and took a deep breath, deciding to stop avoiding him.  "Care to join me for a cup of tea?" 

"I'd love to." 

They were silent until they reached her quarters.  He made himself comfortable on the couch while she got the tea from the replicator. 

He wanted to talk about what was going to happen between them now, but before he got a chance she spoke as she came back from the replicator. 

"Did you hear that Tom started a betting pool for guessing the baby's birthdate?" 

"Yes.  I figured I'd let it slide just this once.  I could always use some replicator rations.  By the way, did you hear they've decided on a name?" 

She nodded.  "Miral.  I hadn't heard that they were sure, though.  B'Elanna mentioned it to me months ago."

Chakotay saw an opportunity to steer the conversation in the direction he wanted it to take. "It sounds like you two got pretty close," he said carefully. 

"I suppose," she said. "I'm glad I got to know her better." 

"Me too.  I think it'll do you both good." 

She could tell that there was something else on his mind. "What is it, Chakotay?"  He paused before he responded, and the answer came to her while she looked at him.  "Have you…been talking to B'Elanna?"

He looked at her, surprised, and she knew that she had hit the mark.  She let out a deep breath.  B'Elanna more than anyone knew how upset she had been after they thought Chakotay had died, and if she talked to him about it…that could easily explain his demeanor right now – he wanted to know where she stood.  She remembered that day in the prison – the day her arm had been broken.  She had told him without saying anything that she returned his feelings.  The day they had been rescued, she thought she had nearly revealed her feelings to him.  Her memory of that conversation was foggy at best, but she specifically remembered apologizing to him.  She had been going to tell him how she felt…but she thought she had blacked out before she had. 

She couldn't decide whether she wished she had told him or not…but now that they were back on Voyager, things were different.  Now, her Starfleet side was attempting to take control and was pushing those feelings to the back of her mind.  Fighting the instinct that had controlled her for many years, she reached over and put her hand over his. 

"What did B'Elanna tell you?" 

"Not much," he admitted. "And what she did tell me was an accident.  She said that you told her…the angry warrior legend." 

She bit her lip and nodded.  Of all the things for B'Elanna to have let slip…but it was too late now. "Yes, I did." 

"I was kind of surprised – you don't even talk about our time there with me.  I wasn't sure that you remembered the story at all." 

"Oh, I remembered it…but talking about it with you brings up…issues…that I don't like having to deal with, at least on a regular basis.  But sharing it with B'Elanna…it helped.  A lot." 

"I'm glad that she was there for you," he said, ignoring for the moment what kind of 'issues' it brought up for her. 

"So am I." She looked at him affectionately and squeezed his hand. "But you were there for me too.  I don't know what I would have done the past two months if you hadn't been with me.  I'm not sure I would have made it without you." 

"Of course you would have – you're the strongest person I know." 

"I'm not always as brave as I look – I'm just really good at hiding it.  I was so terrified sometimes…" She took a deep shaky breath. "It's hard to keep the whole experience straight in my head." 

"What's the last thing you remember?" he asked, curious.  She had been in and out of consciousness so often that he didn't know how much of their escape she remembered. 

"Clearly?" She thought for a moment. "'I'll see you when I get back.'"

"What?" 

"Three months ago.  We ate lunch together, and you got up to head out on your away mission. You smiled at me at said 'I'll see you when I get back.'" She blinked back tears. "You walked out of the mess hall, but you didn't come back.  Everything after that moment seems like it was some kind of horrible distorted nightmare."  He shifted closer to her and gave her a comforting hug, as much for himself as for her. 

"Let me rephrase the question, then," he said when he pulled himself together shortly. "What's the last thing you remember from your nightmare?" 

She frowned as she tried to recall. "Going up to the surface with you on the rope…heading for the ravine." She looked at him and considered her next words very carefully.  She watched him as he looked at her -- the concern in his eyes nearly moved her to tears.  _It would be so easy just to slip back into our old friendship, she thought as she watched him.  __So easy to ignore all that's happened between us.  All she had to do was leave things the way they were right now, in this moment, and maybe everything would be okay.  She wouldn't have to deal with any of her feelings for him, she wouldn't have to 'define parameters'.  __Is that what I want? she thought to herself. _

As she was thinking, he reached over and put his hand gently on her forearm, a unexpected gesture that caught her by surprise – usually she was the one that initiated physical contact.  The affectionate touch of his hand on her arm gave her a new strength, and she fought to suppress her Starfleet instincts.  Taking a deep breath, she thought for a moment longer, and then smiled and looked at him. 

"I remember telling you I was sorry.  I remember telling you I couldn't imagine life without you.  And I remember this." 

She leaned towards him and brushed her lips against his, mimicking the way he had kissed her the night they had escaped.  The contact lasted for a few seconds before she pulled away slowly.  Their faces were inches apart, and they searched each other's eyes, each trying to figure out what the other was thinking. 

They leaned forward and their lips met again, more forcefully this time.  Kathryn slowly leaned back on the couch as the kiss grew more passionate, and he followed her.  His hand ran up her arm, trailing across her shoulder and up her neck.  He put it around the back of her head and entwined his fingers in her hair.  Her hands were on his chest, but she gradually moved them until they were resting on his shoulders.  After a minute, they broke apart.  The only sound in the room was their heavy breathing as they stared at each other. 

"Maybe I should go," he said carefully. 

She closed her eyes and nodded.  He kissed her softly on the forehead and pushed himself off of her. 

"Good night, Kathryn." 

"Good night," she replied quietly, and sat on the couch with her eyes closed until he was gone.

*    *    *

_Captain's Log, Stardate 54914.6  I'm finally getting back into routine on Voyager after being back on duty for a week, but it's going to take me a while longer to catch up on what I missed over the past two months – not to mention keeping up with the day to day business of the ship.  On a more positive note, sensors have detected an ion trail that may be of Starfleet origin.  In the hopes that it may be an indication of survivors from the Yukon, we've altered course to investigate._

A few days after the gathering, Captain Janeway was in her ready room near the end of her shift catching up on reports when her door chime rang. "Come," she called without looking up. 

Chakotay entered and strode over to her desk, PADD in hand.  "Tomorrow's duty roster," he explained as he handed it to her. 

She frowned – that wasn't normally something that he thought required her attention. She gave the duty roster a cursory glance and put it aside. "Thank you, Commander." 

When he hadn't moved and was still standing in front of her desk a few seconds later, she looked up from her report.  She wondered if he wanted to talk – they hadn't spoken in private since the other night in her quarters.  She hoped that he knew better that to bring it up on duty, though, and the grin on his face was a good indication that it was something else. 

"Was there anything else?" 

He didn't answer right away and continued standing there, grinning foolishly. 

"Are you sure that you don't want to have a closer look at that duty roster?" he said finally, teasing her.

She gave him a puzzled look, but humored him and reached for the PADD he had given her.  She looked over it, but didn't see anything extraordinary. 

"What exactly am I supposed to…" she began, but broke off when the absence of two names that were always on the roster caught her attention and she realized what Chakotay was trying to tell her, in his own twisted way. 

Her head snapped up and she smiled, anticipation and excitement in her eyes. "B'Elanna?"  His grin widened and he nodded. "When?" 

"About an hour ago.  The Doctor says that everything is normal and we should expect our newest crewmember in a matter of hours." 

She stood up and walked around the desk, heading for the replicator. "How's she doing?" 

"As well as could be expected.  It's Tom that I'm worried about." 

"Oh?" she said as she ordered two cups of coffee from the replicator. 

"Not only is he a nervous wreck, but I don't envy him trying to comfort a half-klingon in labor." 

She chuckled and handed him a cup of coffee as he joined her on the couch.  When they were seated, an awkward silence filled the room.  This was the first time they had been alone together since the night in her quarters, and they hadn't discussed it yet.  For some reason that she couldn't put her finger on, Kathryn was hesitant to bring it up, and she cleared her throat uncomfortably. 

_Tuvok to Captain Janeway._

For once she welcomed Tuvok's interruption.  "Go ahead." 

_We are approaching the coordinates of the ion trail._

"Understood." She got up quickly off the couch without looking at Chakotay and headed for the bridge.  He followed her and they walked over to Harry's station at Ops where he was working with Jarel. 

"What have you got?" she asked as she reached them. 

Harry shook his head. "Not much.  It looks like it's a few weeks old, so there's not much left of it." 

"You can't tell if it's a Starfleet signature." 

"We can't rule it out," said Harry. "But there's no way to tell for sure." 

"Even if we knew for sure that it was Starfleet," interjected Jarel. "It wouldn't tell us anything." 

"Why not?" asked Chakotay. 

"Simple – the ion trail doesn't go anywhere.  It starts at this position, goes a couple of light-years away, and comes back to a point three light-years from here." 

The Captain moved around to stand beside the Bajoran engineer and looked at the console in front of her.  She stared at it for a few seconds before inspiration hit. 

"Where exactly does the ion trail turn around?" 

Harry hit a few commands on the console. "An M-class moon," he said. 

"An away mission," she whispered excitedly. 

"Captain?" 

Unlike Harry and Jarel, Chakotay immediately picked up on her train of thought. "Are there any other ion trails that pass through the start and end points of the trail we noticed?"  The Captain and Chakotay had realized that the ion trail could be from an away mission since in started in one place, went to an M-class moon, and came back – but not to the exact same place, which could be explained if the ship leaving the ion trail they had noticed had rendezvoused with another ship. 

Harry and Jarel checked their readouts and their faces fell. "Yes – dozens of them," she said. "There's no way to tell which one might have had a smaller vessel with that ion signature." 

"Well, it's a good sign anyways," said Kathryn. 

Jarel nodded with a small smile, glad to believe that some of her colleagues were alive, but Harry was not so optimistic. "I'm not so sure, Captain.  We can't even be remotely certain that this signature is Starfleet.  We've encountered dozens of species whose ion trails would match this one." 

Janeway gave him a disapproving glare. "I appreciate your analysis, Mr. Kim, but I prefer to look on the bright side." 

"Yes, ma'am," he said, chastened.  He had been about to tell her the probability that it actually was a Starfleet signature, but he held his tongue.  From what she had said, he didn't think she's want to know that the match between the unknown ion trail and a Starfleet signature was only seventeen percent.

*    *    *

_Captain's Log, Stardate 54916.3.  We welcomed our newest crewmember aboard last night at 2200 hours.  Mother and daughter are doing well, and I'm happy to be able to say the same for crew morale as we anxiously await the monthly datastream from Starfleet.  I've been informed by Commander Tuvok that last month's data exchange failed due to the proximity of a quantum singularity.  After going for two months without mail, the crew is understandably looking forward to news from home._

In Astrometrics, Icheb was studying some of his material for the Starfleet entrance exam when one of the consoles beeped.  He walked over to it and pressed a button, and the main viewscreen was filled with a familiar mixture of simultaneous transmissions and data. 

"Icheb to the bridge." 

_Go ahead, came the Captain's voice. _

"We are receiving the compressed data stream from Starfleet." 

_Understood.__ We're on our way._

When Captain Janeway and Chakotay arrived in Astrometrics, they found that it was already crowded.  Icheb was there, and he had been joined by Seven, Harry, Mark, and Talia. 

"Incredible," Mark was saying as they walked in.  "Look at the compression ratio and the amount of data they transmitted." 

"The small amount of degradation is amazing considering the distance it traveled," added Talia. 

"Anything of interest?" asked the Captain as they approached the group. 

Seven and Harry turned around from where they were working.  "Captain, I'd like to introduce you to Operation Watson," said Harry proudly as he handed her a PADD. 

"Operation Watson?" 

"It's an idea Seven and I came up with months ago that we submitted to Lieutenant Barclay." 

"We theorized that if we used a quantum singularity to reflect a tachyon beam, we could amplify a comm signal," continued Seven. 

"Which would make it possible to open a comm channel with Starfleet when the singularity is properly aligned," Harry finished. 

Janeway stopped reading the PADD and looked up at them with excitement in her eyes. "You mean we could have real-time conversations?" 

"With visual contact as well," confirmed Harry proudly. 

"In theory," amended Seven. "We have not yet tested it, but Lieutenant Barclay believes that it is worth an attempt." 

"When?" asked Chakotay. 

"It will take approximately two weeks to make the necessary modifications, and the singularity will only remain in alignment for a few minutes per day – fifteen at the most." 

"It's better than nothing," said Janeway. "This is high priority – get on it. Use any personnel you need."

She turned to Mark.  "We have about 17 hours to reply to this datastream.  Have your crew get their messages to Seven of Nine by 1800 hours.  I'm giving you priority since none of your families are aware you're alive.  With the exception of Chakotay and I, we've only been out of contact for two months." 

"I'm sure we'll be able to fit all the messages in as long as everyone keeps it brief," said Chakotay. 

"Still, I'd like anyone on our crew who can wait another month to do so, to leave more room for the others.  I think that Tom and B'Elanna will want to send a few messages, so that will take up a little extra space.  Icheb, could you route all the transmissions and data for my attention to my ready room." She turned back to Mark and Chakotay. "I have a few messages to prepare." 

Mark chuckled. "'Hi, how are you, guess what – I'm not dead'?" 

She laughed. "Something like that."

*    *    *

The Captain stopped in front of the doors to the Paris quarters and pressed the chime.  The doors opened after a few seconds and she walked into the room.  Tom stepped out quickly from the other room.  She was about to greet him when he put his fingers to his lips. 

"She's sleeping," he said quietly. "And so's B'Elanna." 

She smiled and followed him to the couch.  "We got the datastream from Starfleet this afternoon," she told him quietly. "I'm telling the crew to keep it brief this month to leave extra space for the Yukon crewmembers, but I expect that you and B'Elanna will want to send quite a few messages, and that's fine by me." 

"Thank you, Captain, but we don't expect special treatment." 

"Well, you should," she grinned. "The second child born on Voyager deserves a little extra space in our transmissions home.  I expect your father would be glad to get a look at his granddaughter." 

"I think so too.  Speaking of which, I should get a bottle ready.  If I don't get to her before her feeding time, she'll…" He was interrupted by a loud wail from the other room.  "Wake B'Elanna," he finished with a mutter.  "Excuse me, Captain."  He started to get up to dash into the other room, but sat back down with a sheepish look on his face when B'Elanna came out of the next room holding her child, bouncing her on her shoulder to quiet her down. 

"Sorry," said Tom.  "I was just about to get her bottle when she woke up." 

"It's my fault," said the Captain.  "If I hadn't distracted him he would have gotten there in time." 

B'Elanna had not noticed the Captain sitting on the couch, and started when she spoke.  "That's all right, Captain – it's not your fault that my daughter has the vocal abilities of a klingon warrior, and the temper to match."  She moved over to the couch with the baby.  "But now that you're here, maybe you'd like to meet her?" 

"I'd be delighted." 

She took the child from B'Elanna as Tom went over to the replicator to get a bottle.  "She's adorable, B'Elanna.  I've been going to enter her into the crew manifest, but I needed a name first.  Officially, that is – half the crew calls her by name already," she said softly as she ran her finger across the baby's cheek and shushed her. 

"Miral," said B'Elanna with a smile.  "Miral Kathryn Paris." 

It took a moment for that to sink in, and B'Elanna watched in amusement as the Captain froze and then looked up at her.  "Did you say Miral _Kathryn Paris?" _

B'Elanna nodded with a smile, and Tom grinned as well as he came back from the replicator with the bottle.  "Assuming you don't mind, of course," said Tom as he sat down on the arm of the couch behind B'Elanna.

"_Mind?" she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "I'd be honored." _

B'Elanna's grin widened and she looked back at Tom, squeezing his hand.  "If we can do half as much for her as you've done for us, she'll turn out just fine," said B'Elanna quietly.  The Captain handed Miral back to her mother and Tom passed her the bottle. 

"The latest datastream from Starfleet just came in," Tom told her as she offered the bottle to Miral.  "Are you going to send a message to your father?" 

"I guess so," she said. "You?" 

He nodded. "The Captain said we could send more than one message, so we'll have to start within a couple of hours." 

"I'll need a sonic shower first," she muttered, rubbing her eyes. 

"Anything interesting in the transmissions?" Tom asked the Captain. 

"As a matter of fact, there was.  Do you know anything about something called Operation Watson, B'Elanna?" 

"No," she said, but then changed her mind. "Wait – you mean Harry and Seven's idea?  Is it feasible?" 

The Captain nodded. "If all goes according to plan, we should have a daily comm link within two weeks.  As soon as you feel up to it, I'm sure Harry and Seven could use your assistance, but don't push yourself."  She got up to leave. "I want to send the datastream by 1800 hours, so have your messages in by then." 

"No problem, Captain," Tom assured her as he saw her to the door. 

"I'll make you a deal, Mr. Paris.  I won't mention Miral to your father if you don't mention my…resurrection…in your message.  I want to surprise him, and I'm sure you do too." 

"Yes, ma'am," he said as she left.  He finished feeding Miral while B'Elanna had a shower and freshened up.  When she came back, they read their letters from home and then began recording their messages. 

"The problem with visual messages is that they're visual," muttered B'Elanna as she straightened her hair.

"You look fantastic," Tom assured her. 

They made a message for her father, showing him their new daughter, before they began the one for Admiral Paris and the rest of Tom's family.  They kept it short, feeling guilty taking up so much space in the transmission.  Tom made sure not to mention Captain Janeway, but he couldn't resist giving his father a hint. 

"Oh, and Dad? I know you'll probably want to get right back to work, but I wouldn't if I were you.  There's at least one other message in this transmission that I think you'll want to see right away.  Take my word for it."

(Yes, there's more.  Much, much, more.  Return to my index to continue to the sequel, "AWAKENINGS", or find it on my website www.geocities.com/kira4747)


End file.
